Blackest Night
by Taw2541
Summary: An alternative to Elseworlds. The dead are coming back to life and are threating the forces of Green Arrow, Flash, White Canary, Supergirl, and more. How are they back and why? The answers lie in Gotham City and in a hero long believed to be dead who has now risen.
1. Chapter 1 - A Vision of the Fallen

**This will be my first big story and crossover. I always thought the Elseworlds crossover was the perfect opportunity to bring back Laurel Lance, I mean seriously the power to shape all reality in the universe and they didn't use this opportunity to bring her back. Additionally, I felt Elseworlds should have focused a little bit more on Batwoman and her helping the main Arrowverse heroes more. ****Anyway, this story will not be like the 2009-2010 comic event; therefore, there will be no Green Lantern or any of the other Lantern Corps. However, the dead will play a part in this story just not quite how you might imagine it as this story will more horror and mystery; which fits Gotham City perfectly. Enjoy and be kind in your reviews.**

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December 2018, Gotham City

In an abandoned warehouse in the slums of Gotham with the sounds of police sirens filling the air, inside the warehouse the sound of gunfire is heard. Inside a man, was pressed against the window and given a left cross to his face before being thrown out of a two-story window by the individual that punched him. The firefight continued for a few more seconds until a man was kicked with enough force that the door opened up and he fell down the stairs. The man was barely able to move, most likely because of a broken leg. The individual that kicked him was dressed in black and wearing a balaclava, this figure then pulled out a pistol and placed a suppressor on it. The masked figure then shot the man that they threw out of a window in the head and proceeded slowly to the man whose leg they broke.

"Are there any more of you still in this city?" The masked individual said their voice feminine.

"You know there are." The man with busted leg replied.

"But what I really want to know is where's the one at the top." She said.

"You won't find him, you'll never find him." He said.

"I piss him off enough, I just might bring him to me." She said and then immediately shot him in the head. Taking a deep breath, she lifted her masked revealing the face of Laurel Lance.

Cisco Ramon's apartment, Central City

Cisco could not believe how messy his apartment had gotten over the last couple of months, actually, he could. He spent so many nights at S.T.A.R. Labs and the team, that gradually everything just built up over time. From the dirty laundry to the empty soda cans to large amounts of dust on some of his most prized collectibles. Unashamed, he listened and sang to "Sexy and I know it" by LMFAO on repeat as he was spring cleaning, or winter cleaning technically. Using a feather duster, Cisco began dusting off his mint condition Klingon Bat'Leth from the Star Trek Franchise. Looking through his graphic novel collection, Cisco browsed through his collection and looked at his "Barb Wire" novel and suddenly the photograph he kept in there for safekeeping fell out.

It was a photo of Cisco himself with Laurel Lance, the Black Canary; Cisco asked for the photo as payment for making her Canary Cry, choker collar which can emit a high-frequency sound when Laurel screamed. He thought fondly and sadly of the photo not just because it was him posing with a totally hot superhero babe but because Laurel had died two years ago in Star City. He picked up the photo and stared at it intently for a few seconds, suddenly he received one of his vibes; an ability that allowed him to see events of the past, present, and sometimes the future through the access of multidimensional energy. In his vibe, he saw two people were killed with headshots and standing over those bodies was a woman dressed in black and wearing a balaclava; lifting it up, it was shown to be Laurel alive and well. Exiting his vibe, Cisco was stunned.

"That's ... that's not possible, oh God please don't let Oliver shoot me." Cisco said in pure shock and terror. Reaching for his phone, Cisco dialed Barry Allen and told him what he just saw.

ARGUS Training Room, Star City

Recently released from prison Oliver Queen now publically operating as the Green Arrow was sparing with his teammate and friend, ARGUS agent John Diggle. John managed to get the upper hand and throw Oliver to the ground but Oliver managed to get him back by delivering a well-placed counter strike after blocking John's punch with both his arms; Oliver reached out his hand to help John up.

"Urgh, not that I couldn't take it but couldn't you have pulled back there at the last minute?" John said as Oliver help him up.

"Sorry, got a lot on my mind right now," Oliver said.

"You and Felicity, still not talking?" John asked.

"No, been on the couch pretty much all week too." Oliver dismayed.

"Give it time, man, you'll work through it," John said.

"Kinda hard to do when she doesn't want to talk about it," Oliver said. Suddenly ARGUS received an alert and John checked his phone to see the specifics.

"What's that?" Oliver asked.

"We've got Bratvas fighting the Bertinellis' over in an old Diaz weapons cache in the Glades," John explained before turning to Oliver. "Rapid response is on another mission, we're the only ones who can make it on time. I could really use some backup, Oliver," he asked.

"You don't have to ask Dig, suit up," Oliver stated.

Dressed as the Green Arrow, Oliver and Diggle head to the Glades and made quick work of the mobsters. Suddenly, John was blindsided and about to be shot point-blank by a heavy automatic. Suddenly, a familiar streak of yellow lightning wooshed John to safety and tied up the mobsters. While John was safe, he was feeling under the weather by Barry's intervention and then removed his ARGUS helmet and began vomiting. Oliver stared at Barry it had been months since he'd visited Oliver in prison.

"New Suit?" Oliver asked.

"Yeah, and I see you're rocking your League of Assassin's haircut again and you ditched your Duck Dynasty beard," Barry said humorously.

"What's Duck Dynasty?" Oliver said amused.

Regaining composure of himself, John walked over to Barry. "So what problem did you bring for this time, Barry? Another invasion or another immortal psychopath?" John asked annoyed, he liked Barry and knew him to be a good man but whenever he showed up huge trouble usually came and then John had to wrap his head around something, even more, new and bizarre.

"Uh, actually it might be one of yours," Barry said to John.

"What do you mean?" Oliver asked.

"Um, it's Laurel, Oliver," Barry said reluctantly, leaving Oliver perplexed and shocked.

Radio City Music Hall Theater, New York, 1979

It was April in 1979, Sara Lance was taken for a surprise date by her girlfriend, Ava Sharpe. As time travelers, Sara and Ava spent so much time protecting history that they rarely had to opportunity to take advantage of it in small ways. Ava's surprise date was going to see the American debut of the original 1978 classic, "Dawn of the Dead". Sara was obsessed with horror films something that she used to share with her late sister, Laurel, who Sara believed could have been a regular scream queen in another life; instead of the one, she was. Finishing the film, the girlfriends were walking down New York talking about the movie.

"All I'm saying is that zombies are more terrifying when they can blitz you," Ava explained to Sara.

"Heh, I prefer the classic zombies; slow-moving, attacking in hordes," Sara argued.

"Oh and also dancing, with MJ?" Ava said sticking her arms up doing the zombie dance from Michael Jackson's "Thriller" video, making Sara laugh and Ava soon joined. As the laughter died down, Sara approached Ava and gave her a deep kiss as she clasped her face which Ava responded by grabbing the lower of Sara's back.

Pulling from their kiss, Sara spoke to her girlfriend. "This was a really fun idea for date night." She said with a smile.

"Well, it was either this or we go out dancing," Ava said.

"Oh, you do not want to get into a dance-off me Director Sharpe," Sara said in a cheeky manner.

"I'll take your word for it, Captain Lance," Ava said as she pulled Sara in for another deep kiss.

Suddenly, a temporal gateway opened up and the always annoyingly gleeful and awkward Time Bureau Agent Gary Green showed up.

"Director Sharpe, Captain Lance, I am so sorry to be interrupting your date night right now, especially since you both look like your heading to the bedroom soon," Gary said awkwardly and gleefully.

"Gary!" Both Ava and Sara said in annoyance.

"Right, sorry very inappropriate it's just watching you two makes believe I'll find love someday so," Gary said as he started ranting.

"Gary, what is so damn urgent that you needed to see me?" An agitated Ava asked.

"Actually, the urgency concerns Captain Lance, Director," Gary said.

"What urgency?" Sara asked.

"Well, Oliver Queen, the Green Arrow tried to get in contact with you. He said something about your sister, Laurel, something about how she's still alive." Gary said excitedly, while Ava just looked surprised and concerned as she stared at Sara's face, now stunned with silence and shock.

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**Author's Notes - Barb Wire is a Dark Horse Comics character who is a night club owner and mercenary, I put Cisco's photo with Laurel in there because both Barb Wire and Black Canary have similar tastes in clothing.**

**Also, like the Elseworlds crossover, this will feature a smaller ensemble of characters as it will particularly focus on those closest to Laurel and characters who haven't had a real opportunity in a crossover (Ralph and Ava).**

**Also to those who do not know about Katie Cassidy's film career, she's been in several horror movies and is considered to be a "scream queen".**


	2. Chapter 2 - Gathering

**For future references in this story, Black Siren/Laurel Lance Earth 2, has not been seen in this story or at the beginning of this version of season 7 and you will figure out why in this chapter. Also after this story, I may or may not do an Arrow Season 7 rewrite to fit this story in there, just something to keep in mind.**

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Central City, S.T.A.R. Labs

After spreading the news about Cisco's Vibe, those closest to Laurel Lance or close to those who knew her arrived at S.T.A.R. Labs; the likes included Barry Allen, Iris West-Allen, Dr. Caitlin Snow, Ralph Dibny, Oliver Queen, John Diggle, Felicity Smoak, Dinah Drake, Sara Lance, Ava Sharpe, and Sherloque Wells. They were all staring intently at Cisco Ramon.

"So you're only telling me, that you only think that my sister's alive?" Sara asked angrily.

"Uh yeah, I believe that I left out any definites," Cisco said nervously and a little scared of Sara.

"But, Gary said, uh dammit Gary," Sara said out loud as she realized Gary got carried away in his message.

"I'll reprimand him later babe," Ava told Sara.

"Cisco, what exactly did you see again?" Oliver asked.

"It's better if I just show everyone. Gather around." Cisco said as everyone gathered around placed a hand on Cisco; some of them did it reluctantly and awkwardly. Using his powers, Cisco showed everyone his vibe of Laurel; of her shooting, two people point-blank in the face in an alleyway. As everyone exited the vibe, some of them stood back in shock of what they saw.

"Laurel," Sara said.

"Okay, so I'll think I need to state the obvious, but that wasn't Laurel," Felicity said.

"Yeah, if anything that was Black Siren," Dinah said.

"I'm sorry, who or what is a Black Siren?" Ralph asked.

"Laurel's doppelganger from Earth-Two, very sultry and very evil," Cisco replied. "I thought about that, but the item that I touched that first triggered my vibe was something that Laurel, our Laurel gave to me personally." He explained.

"Well, our Laurel would have never flat out shoot someone in the head like that!" Oliver spoke out loud.

"But, Black Siren would," Dinah stated plainly.

"Again, it ain't Black Siren," Cisco stated plainly.

"Can you be so certain?" Dinah replied.

"Dinah might have a point, I mean no one's seen Black Siren since Quentin died." John reminded everyone.

"If I may interject." Sherloque interrupted as everyone looked to him, the detective began walking explaining his reasons. "Capitaine Drake's assertation is not unreasonable. Logically, everyone here knows that Mademoiselle Lance is deceased. Again, logically, given the nature of by which her doppelganger is known for and it fits the act that Cisco's vision showed; the most probable answer is that Cisco saw Black Siren execute these victims for reasons that currently escape us." He said.

"See," Dinah said.

"However," Sherloque interrupted the Star City Police Captain. "Given the nature of Cisco's powers were tied to this object that Mademoiselle Lance left to him and not the Siren herself, and given my own experience in dealing with cases of resurrections. There is also a strong probability that the woman was the Laurel Lance most people in this room are familiar with." He explained.

"Except the part where we take it that my sister killed two people in cold blood!" Sara yelled.

"Forgive my accusations, Capitaine Lance. But in my experience, if this was indeed your sister, once the dead return to the living they are never quite the same as they were before." Sherloque told Sara, who couldn't argue knowing her experiences with coming back from the dead.

"So we're either dealing with Black Siren or the original Laurel Lance, who is now apparently capable of first-degree murder; neither which is good news," Caitlin said.

"Whether this is really Laurel, Black Siren, or maybe some other version of her, I think we can all agree that we need to find out for sure and we need to find out before this person hurts Laurel's reputation and legacy even further," Oliver said passionately.

"Damn straight," Sara said.

"Cisco, you once told me that your vibes could see not only recent events but past events what if what you saw happened years ago?" Iris asked him.

"Not unlikely, which means that the trail would be very cold by now," Cisco stated.

"I've solved my fair share of cold cases," Ralph said.

"As have I, Monsieur Giraffe," Sherloque told him.

"Well do we even know where to start, I mean that place could be anywhere in the world," Ava said,

"Cisco can you bring me into your Vibe again?" Oliver asked. "I think I saw something that looked familiar to me." He said. Cisco walked to Oliver and once again brought him into his vibe, for a brief moment Oliver stared at Laurel or whoever it was that had the face of the woman he deeply loved. Looking at his surroundings, Oliver then walked up to the steps of the warehouse and found a building with Giant "W" on it that was in the background that he recognized. Oliver then exited the vibe.

"Well I don't know when this happened but I know where," Oliver said.

"So where are we going?" Barry asked.

"Gotham City," Oliver said.

"Gotham City, really Gotham?" John asked.

"What's so bad about Gotham? Sara asked.

"It's even more difficult to live there than in Star City, Sara, on top of being overridden with crime, the one-percenters basically take what little good is there and keep it all to themselves and that's just the start of its problems; Gotham is basically considered a dead city by the US government that nobody talks about," Oliver explained.

"No city no matter how hopeless it is going stop me from figuring out whether or not my sister is actually alive." Sara proclaimed.

"I know it wouldn't," Oliver said. Turning to everyone else. "Alright let's get going." He shouted.

Felicity walked over to her husband. "Oliver, hey can we talk?" She asked.

"Sure," Oliver said as he went somewhere a little more private. "What's up?" He asked

"Listen, you probably shouldn't go," Felicity said.

"What?" Oliver asked his wife.

"Oliver Queen is a public figure and an infamous vigilante. If you are in Gotham City, you're attracting the type of attention that we don't want." Felicity explained.

"Felicity this concerns Laurel you can't expect me to just sit this one out, cause I won't," Oliver argued.

"Of course not, I mean why would you not listen to me now when you haven't before." Felicity countered.

"Felicity," Oliver said as Felicity walked away and Barry passed her to talk to Oliver. "Something going on with you two?" Barry asked.

"Yes, but right now she thinks I shouldn't go to Gotham, thinks I'll draw too much attention and she might be right," Oliver explained.

"Well she should know by now you don't sit around when someone you care about is in trouble, especially when that someone might be Laurel Lance. Besides if Gotham can handle the Batman, it can handle the Green Arrow." Barry replied.

"The Batman's an urban legend," Oliver told Barry.

"Wait you don't believe Batman's real?" Barry surprisingly asked.

"He's not real. He's an urban legend concocted by the Gotham police department to scare criminals. And I'm the original masked vigilante, Barry." Oliver said defensively.

"Well, I guess we're going find out for sure now, huh," Barry said.

In Gotham City, a shadowy silhouette was standing on the top of a building as their hair and cape blowing in the wind.


	3. Chapter 3 - Scouring Gotham

Gotham City, The Docks

Using John's ARGUS connections, he managed to get himself, Oliver, Barry, Sara, Ava, Cisco, Caitlin, Ralph, Dinah, and Sherloque into the city; while Iris and Felicity stayed behind in S.T.A.R. Labs to focus on support and research. Arriving at the docks the heroes all took to gaze at the dark metropolis which contained over three million people in the city and the day was just starting.

"So, this is Gotham, doesn't look that bad," Barry said.

"Give it time, this place feels almost cursed," Dinah said.

"Have you been here before, Dinah?" John asked.

"Back during my hard traveling hero days when I was trying to take down Sonus's crew, I hung around with a bunch of scumbags around these parts," Dinah answered.

"We might have to use that, Dinah, most of us here don't have any resources to exploit in this city; the ones I have are sketchy at best," Oliver explained.

"What do you mean by that Oliver?" John asked.

"Back in the day, my father used to have business dealings with some of the members of Wayne Enterprises including their former CEO, Lucius Fox. If any of them are still here and had good relations with my dad, we might get lucky." Oliver explained.

"So how do you wanna do this Ollie?" Sara asked.

"We split up in five groups. Barry and I will go talk to my father's old contacts. Caitlin, you and Cisco go the morgues, finding the bodies will give us some answers. Ralph, Sherloque, go and try to find the alleyway that we saw if you can. John and Dinah, go to the neighborhoods start asking around, see if anyone has seen Laurel's face. Sara, Ava, I want you two to find us someplace for us to set up shop; just in case were here longer than we planned." Oliver ordered.

"I'm sorry, not that, those aren't good plans but who put you in charge?" Ralph asked. Oliver gave a look as did everyone else, that said, of course, he's in charge. "Okay, message received." He acknowledged.

Outside of the Iceberg Louge

Dinah guided John to the outside of the Iceberg Louge, one of Gotham's most popular nighttime spots that are secretly ridden with criminal activity.

"Nice place," John said.

"If you don't mind the cold, the penguin theme, and the criminal trash; that place is too exclusive for us to get in so let's just stick to those outsides," Dinah said. She walked towards a stranger and showed him a photo of Laurel Lance. "Have you seen this woman?" She asked. "Piss off," The stranger replied, this continued for several minutes for both Dinah and John.

"Any luck?" John asked.

"Nope, you?" Dinah asked.

"Nothing. Hey, what's was up with you earlier? John asked.

"What do you mean?" Dinah asked.

"I mean you seem pretty gun oh about wanting this to be Black Siren and not Laurel Lance," John stated.

"I'm just trying to remain objective John. But you're right maybe a part of me wants this to be the Laurel I hate instead of the Laurel that you all love, but can you honestly tell me that none of you have a blind spot when it comes to Laurel." Dinah asked.

"No, you're right we all do. Especially me considering it was my brother that got her killed." John sadly answered.

"John," Dinah said feeling like a jerk.

"Let's keep asking around," John stated.

Gotham City Morgue, One of them

"You're sure this is the right morgue?" Cisco asked.

"Positive, why are you so nervous?" Caitlin asked.

"I prefer to avoid a morgue until I'm dead, plus the last corpse I saw came back to life," Cisco said referring to Grider. Caitlin and Cisco approached a doctor who just exited the room; his attire told her that he was the medical examiner.

"Excuse me, doctor," Caitlin asked as the doctor stopped to look at her. "My name is Dr. Caitlin Snow and this my colleague Cisco Ramon, we're from S.T.A.R. Labs. We were wondering if you have seen these two bodies in your or any medical examiner's room at some point." She said as she gave him the sketches of the deceased in Cisco's vibe since Felicity could not find them in any criminal database.

Taking a long look at the drawings, the doctor then handed them back and replied. "I'm sorry Dr. Snow I'm afraid I can't help you." He said as Caitlin saw his photo id, that read a Dr. Scott Snyder.

"But, Dr. Snyder if we could just please check your records it would really help us with a private investigation that we are doing." Caitlin pleaded.

"I'm sorry, I can't help you." Dr. Snyder said as he returned the drawings to Cisco and walked away from them.

"Well, that was a bust," Cisco said.

"Very," Caitlin agreed.

As soon as they were walking away Dr. Snyder pulled out his cell phone and dialed a number. "It's Snyder, two scientists from S.T.A.R. Labs came to visit me just showing me pictures of the bodies you wanted to be destroyed. Their names are Caitlin Snow and Cisco Ramon." He said over the phone.

Undisclosed Safe House

Sara and Ava were setting up shop in an abandon safe, connecting cables to computers and various other equipment. Barry also quickly brought the heroes suits and weapons just in case the group would find themselves in trouble; Sara knew they likely would.

"So how did you know about this place again?" Ava asked as she was plugging up the computers.

"It's an old League of Assassins safe house, they used to have at least one on every major city on the planet; though I've never been to this one, they pretty much all look the same," Sara replied dusting off some old boxes of League equipment.

"Clever. Guess your ex-boyfriend will be less bossy when he gets back." Ava said.

"Doubt it, and I wouldn't really consider Oliver an ex-boyfriend by the way," Sara answered in a surprising tone.

"Really, I thought after your affair with him, you and he actually dated when you came home from Nanda Parbat," Ava asked

"Oh, that ... that was a one-nighter, although now that you mention it, it does feel like he and I had a brief thing even though I know we didn't," Sara answered but was perplexed by her answered.

"Wait, are you experiencing a Temporal Echo?" Ava asked.

"What?" Sara asked confusingly.

"Temporal Echoes, its experience you get when you remember something from a previous timeline; something that was erased from your history but you can't quite recall what exactly was erased," Ava explained.

"So, you're saying something like "Flashpoint" erased one of my relationships?" Sara asked in a slightly horrified manner.

"It could be Flashpoint or one of your team's screwups, I mean technically babe the Legends have messed with history a lot more than the Flash," Ava explained as politely as possible.

"Huh, well considering it's me and Oliver it probably wouldn't have lasted anyway." Sara sighed, walking past her girlfriend giving her a slight bump on Ava's butt with her own rear end in a playful manner causing Ava to smile. "Besides, I'm all yours." She said going for the next box.

"So how are you doing with everything else?" Ava asked worriedly.

"Ava," Sara replied as she turned around.

"Sara, come on. Pretty much one the first things I've learned about you is how much you love your sister and how much you wish you could find a way to save her without affecting the timeline." Ava reflected.

"If it's Laurel." Sara bluntly stated.

"What?" Ava asked.

"Look, Ava, I appreciate your concern ... really I do and I love for it but right now I'm trying to prepare for the worst," Sara stated.

"Meaning?" Ava wondered.

"If it's not Laurel then it's Black Siren or someone making themselves look like my sister. But, ... if it is Laurel ... my Laurel ... my sister, then it's making think about a million questions in my head right now." Sara said as she started to tear up. "Like how is she alive and why didn't she tell me she was alive?" She said.

"Well, Sara, you are a time traveler it must be hard for her to call you." Ava reluctantly answered.

"What about Oliver or Team Arrow, talking to them means you can talk to me," Sara said as a tear ran down her cheek and she quickly wiped it away. "So, if it is ... my sister, why doesn't she want to talk to me? Why doesn't she want me to know she's alive? Why wasn't she there for me when ... when our dad died." She said. Choosing not to say anything, Ava walked over and just hugged Sara tightly, as Sara wrapped her arms around her.

Street of Nolan and Burton

"If I remember right, the last of my father's old associates should be down this way," Oliver told Barry as they were walking.

"I'm surprised they put it in the bad part of town," Barry asked.

"It's cute that you think there's a good part of town," Oliver replied with an amused tone.

"Well, you were right about the one-percenters taking the good parts with them," Barry told him.

"Like I said nobody talks about Gotham." Oliver restated.

Suddenly, three thuggish criminals popped out the streets and one of them spoke. "Sounds like you guys aren't from around here." The thug said as Barry and Oliver stopped in their tracks. "Probably don't know, but Gotham tourism bureau collects a tax on out of towners, so phones, wallets, and watches now." He said threateningly as he pointed a gun at them.

Annoyed, Oliver approached the thugs. "You know what, fellas?" He said to intimidate.

"I ... we don't want any trouble, so maybe we can just talk this out, okay? Barry said and he started to laugh nervously. "Talk it out, okay." He said.

With the thug pointing the gun turning his eyes at Barry, Oliver could tell he was distracted and quickly took advantage of it. "I'll talk first," Oliver said, as he quickly disarmed the thug of his gun and elbowed him in the face, then he kicked the second punk right in the face and finally he took the gun and pointed it the third would-be-thief. Suddenly, police sirens could be heard and Oliver turned around to see the cops pointing their guns at him. "Oh, great," He said.

"On the ground now! All of you, on the ground! Show me your hands!" The cop said as Oliver turned around, the cop's face turned yellow. "Oh crap. I need SWAT at Nolan and Burton. Green Arrow is sighted at Nolan and Burton." The cop said on his radio.

"Sir, we don't want any trouble," Barry said frantically as he got down on his knees interlocking his fingers on his head.

"Yeah. Tell that to Oliver Queen!" The cop replied as Oliver reluctantly got down and put the gun away, allowing the cops to arrest him and Barry.

* * *

**Author's Notes - As much I** **loved watching Barry and Kara ripping Oliver a new one about his promiscuous past, I think it's more reasonable that Oliver's father had contacts with Wayne Enterprises for information gathering than a woman he had a one night stand with.**

**As for my decision to erase Sara and Oliver's relationship in season 2, this was because some people have noticed that the two of them rarely have any interaction anymore despite their past; this would be a good explanation. As for those who wonder whether or not this is possible remember Iris and Joe at the start of Season 3 they were estranged because of Flashpoint, so it's possible for something like this to happen. Also, I did this because I have mixed feelings towards Oliver and Sara's relationship in Season 2, retconning it into a one night stand would better fit their character's at that point in time.**

**For those who aren't Batman comic readers, Scott Snyder was a Batman writer primarily during the New 52. **


	4. Chapter 4 - Kate Kane

Gotham Holding Cell

"Excuse me, officer, can I please have another phone call?" Barry asked loudly his hands of the cell, only for the guard to tell him to shut up.

"We already had our one phone call, Barry," Oliver reminded him.

"No, you had your one phone call and it got us nowhere, I could still technically have one," Barry said. "Although we wouldn't need one if you hadn't jumped the gun on those guys." He accused Oliver.

"I know, I know, you don't have to remind me, Barry. I'm sorry; after this no more distractions." Oliver reluctantly admitted.

Barry took a breath and sat down. "Look I'm probably making a bigger deal about this than it already is, it's just I have a bunch bad memories of prison." He recalled.

"And, I don't?" Oliver asked.

"Yeah, I guess you do. From what I know and heard, your time made mine look like the "Orange Is the New Black"; which is probably making me wonder why it seems like your itching to go back after being out for like what ... two weeks? Barry asked with a chuckle.

Oliver surprisingly smiled at Barry's comment.

"So about you going Green Arrow at those guys, what was up with that? Is it Felicity or is it, Laurel?" Barry asked.

"Both I guess and I'd rather not talk about it now," Oliver said a little defensively.

Suddenly a police officer came to their cell and began opening the cell door. "Good news. Somebody posted your bail." The guard said.

"Who?" Oliver asked the guard. "I don't know. Guess someone wanted to make you guys their headache instead of mine." The guard answered as Barry and Oliver exited their cell. "We'll show ourselves out," Oliver said. Leaving out the front door of the police station, the two heroes notice a limo and a well-dressed man waiting for them.

"Please come with me." The man said.

"I'm guessing this belongs to whoever bailed us out," Oliver figured.

"Yeah. Hey, we appreciate the early release but my friend and I are really fine on our own." Barry said.

"I'm afraid my employer insists." The man said as he opened his coat to show his sidearm.

"So much for no more distractions," Barry said as he and Oliver reluctantly walked over to the limo. They drove around the city for a while until the eventually stopped at what was once the Wayne Enterprises building.

Barry and Oliver got out of the limo, Barry in particular gaze the building. "Bruce Wayne got us out of jail? Doesn't sound like him." Barry stated.

"No, it wasn't. Wayne left Gotham 3 years ago." Oliver stated.

"Why? To go where?" Barry asked.

"No one knows," Oliver said.

Looking at the private security guard, Barry and Oliver both got a sense to walk in the building, as they did they noticed it was trashed and almost completely tagged with spray paint. "So who's manning the shop now? Barry asked.

"Apparently after he left, Bruce's broad of directors went to town with a bunch of aggressive get-rich-quick deals," Oliver explained.

Yeah, but an abandoned building didn't bail us out, right?" Barry asked, suddenly he stared up at the 2nd floor and noticed someone. "Whoa. That is definitely not Bruce Wayne." Barry stated as he noticed a woman with short black hair that was jelled and styled. She wore a black shirt and red velvet jacket and matching dress pants. Barry also noticed she seemed to have tattoos on her neck and both arms, he kinda thought she was cool.

"Oliver Queen." The woman said with a smirk and attitude.

"Yeah, who wants to know?" Oliver asked the stranger.

"The rain of your parade." She replied.

"She's cool, she seems cool," Barry told Oliver as the woman walked down the staircase.

"If you're visiting Gotham to compare grappling hooks with Batman, you are out of luck. No one's seen him in years." The woman stated.

"Told you he was real," Barry whispered to Oliver.

"Myth," Oliver whispered back.

"Oliver would never compare himself to a total badass like Batman," Barry told the woman just to tease his friend.

"Look not that I don't appreciate you getting us out of jail, but, who are you and why are you helping us?" Oliver skeptically asked.

"Gotham has enough problems without a guy in green leather showing off his arrows to everyone, so the faster you find what you're looking for, the faster you can get the hell out of my city." The woman stated.

"Uh, but, what should we call you Rain, Ms. Parade?" Barry nervously asked.

"Kane, Kate Kane." She said as she finally introduced herself.

Undisclosed Safe House

Back at the abandon League of Assassin's safe house, the groups started to arrive with the exception of Barry and Oliver. Sara and Ava had finished setting up the safe house, John and Dinah had arrived first.

"So any luck guys?" Sara asked.

"Well after being told to go to hell, in every possible way in the English language we did manage to get something," John said.

"Apparently, Laurel or whoever this is has been hanging around in Gotham for a while now," Dinah explained. "She's been attending bars for information and hits Gotham's underground fighting clubs whenever she needs money, apparently she wipes the floor with them." She says.

"Guess that runs in the family," Ava said as she looked at Sara.

"It could still be Black Siren," Dinah said. "All we really know is that we've confirmed that whoever Cisco saw is here." She said.

"I understand that Dinah, I'm not being very overly hopeful anyways," Sara said. "Do we know where to find her?" She asked.

"No, unfortunately," John said.

"Dammit, we need a lead right now," Sara stated in annoyance.

Wayne Enterprises Rooftop

Barry, Oliver, and Kate Kane all stood on the rooftop of what was once Wayne Enterprises. Kate was looking at an old worn-out photo of Laurel Lance, the same one that Oliver kept with him during his five years of hell.

"Beautiful Woman. Did you guys try facial recognition? One of Bruce's R&D guys still works in the building. I can give this to him." Kate said as she handed the photo back to Oliver.

"Uh, we did try it, so thank you, but no luck. Besides, I'd think if Wayne's R&D's is in the same shape as this building, it's not gonna really do us any good," Oliver explained.

"Suit yourself," Kate sighed.

"Seems strange, doesn't it, that Bruce Wayne and Batman disappeared from Gotham around the same time." Barry curiously stated.

"Well, when Batman left, the city went to 5 different kinds of hell, which for Gotham is really saying something. Took a toll on Bruce," Kate sadly stated.

"Is that why he left?" Barry asked.

"Still trying to figure that out," Kate replied."

"Right, but you work for him, and you don't know why he left?" Oliver wondered.

"Who says I work for him," Kate stated with a smirk. "Well listen if you don't want my help feel free to stay here, for now, the building is under renovation, so this is the best place for you guys to work out of." She explained before leaving for the exit. "Oh, and the, uh, Wi-Fi password's "Alfred," She said at the last minute before leaving.

Undisclosed Safe House

Cisco and Caitlin arrived at the safe house that Sara texted them. Cisco and Caitlin took a look at their current work station, it was poor at best. As it had only two computers, at least two or three years outdated. It had a training mat on the floor and an impressive collection of martial arts weapons that were better than the computers.

"Please tell me, you guys found something," John said.

"Actually, yes," Caitlin said. "We went to this one coroner's office and this one doctor seemed a little ... suspicious." She said as she went to the computer and brought up his file. "We called Felicity, she hacked into his computer files now she didn't find any records on the victims in their photos but she did manage to find this." She said showing the group Dr. Snyder's financial records.

"Something tells me a medical examiner isn't supposed to make that much money," Ava stated.

"They're not," Caitlin replied.

"All this really proves is the guy's on the take, doesn't mean he has anything to with the victims," Dinah said.

"Oh, but he does." Cisco excitedly stated.

"How do you know?" Sara asked.

Cisco pulled out a photo from his pocket which showed the Doctor on a boat fishing and holding a huge trout. "After Felicity checked the dirty doctor's bank accounts, Caitlin and I swung by his place to get a little souvenir," Cisco stated.

"You do realize you're admitting to breaking and entering to a cop right?" Dinah mention with a frown.

"Oh, snap sorry," Cisco said suddenly.

"S'okay just messing with you," Dinah cheekily said.

"What did your vibe show you Cisco?" Sara asked.

"Yeah, he did perform an autopsy on the victims. However, once he was done he had the bodies destroyed didn't contact their families or write a report about it." Cisco answered.

"Almost like he didn't want anyone to know they existed," Sara said. "Call the others,". She ordered.

Wayne Enterprises Building

Oliver and Barry worked on the rooftop for a while but got nowhere, frustrated with everything going on he decided to walk around and clear his head. Oliver walked around the ruined building, moving through hallways there was too much for him to think about. Eventually, he found himself staring at Kate Kane who was sitting in an office that almost reminded him of his father's office at his childhood mansion, she noticed him almost immediately.

"You lost?" Kate asked him.

"No. I ... I just needed to clear my head for a sec." Oliver said. "Actually, you know what? I'm sorry about the third degree earlier. I guess the name Bruce Wayne carries certain notoriety." Oliver explained.

"Oh, I know," Kate said with a smile. "Bruce Wayne's my cousin." She stated.

"Your cousin? That makes a lot of sense actually." Oliver said finally figuring out Kate's position now.

"Actually, I'm in the process of turning this building into a real estate development firm, so this is me hijacking his office," Kate said, her desk and hands covered with various important papers and documents. "You know, you actually kind of remind me of him ... just a little." She stated as Oliver walked over to stare out of her office view of Gotham.

"You know, I've heard that before and I just want to say I think once upon a time that might have been true," Oliver stated, as he heard comparisons to himself and Bruce Wayne for years.

"Believe me when I say you two are more alike than you think," Kate said ominously as she stood next to Oliver.

"Yeah well, I bet Bruce doesn't have to worry about a wife that is upset with him at the moment because of the decisions he's made recently. Speaking of which, do you think your cousin just left? That may be living in a city like this just got to be too much for him and he just broke?" Oliver asked.

"Sitting at that desk, staring out that window, watching the city that we grew up in rot at its core, you find a way to not break. Bruce didn't leave Gotham without a fight." Kate confidently stated.

"Sorry, I just ... I have a hard time trying to help my city and I feel like it costs me with the people I love, I'd be lying if I said I never thought about taking my wife and my son, somewhere private and just be with them." Oliver reluctantly admitted.

"But then you wouldn't be the Green Arrow, and as for what it's worth I think your city needs somebody like you," Kate said.

"Really, I didn't get that impression from you earlier," Oliver replied.

"Well, you can't blame me. I mean, would you like it if somebody like you showed up causing trouble in your city?" Kate answered with a smirk.

"Fair enough," Oliver admitted with a slight smile, suddenly his phone rang and Oliver quickly answered it. "Yeah, you got something? Okay, Barry and I will meet up with you soon, Sara." He said as he hung up.

"Sounds like you have a lead?" Kate asked and stated.

"We do. Thanks for the help and the chat." Oliver said as he walked out of the office. Once Oliver was out of site, Kate went to her office's bookshelf and went to the grandfather clock in the middle of it. Opening the glass door, she pulled a lever inside it. This caused the bookshelf to part revealing a secret elevator behind it, entering the elevator, Kate pulled the chain lever and began descending down. Reaching the bottom, Kate exited the area and entered the dark cave-like room. She heard the sound of metal clanking metal and eventually came to the source of the sound, it was a woman working out on a salmon ladder, the same woman in the photograph that Oliver Queen showed Kate herself. Except now, Laurel Lance was older, leaner, more muscular, and she was not brunette as her hair was now blonde and short, it's length just barely passing her chin and parted on her right side. Once Laurel reached the top of salmon, she then let go of the bar and dropped to her feet.

"So I met your ex-boyfriend," Kate said as she threw Laurel a towel.

"Did you tell him anything?" Laurel asked after she wiped the sweat off her face.

* * *

**I modeled Laurel's appearance in this story to Katie Cassidy's recent look in 2019 with her short blonde, which looks really good in my opinion.**


	5. Chapter 5 - The Bat and the Canary

_Wayne Tower, March 2018, Flashback_

_Laurel entered Wayne Enterprises, she couldn't believe the state this place was in. She knew it was a long shot that he was still here and still operating in the same place as last time but she had to be sure. Laurel found his office, it brought back memories for her; mostly the good. She noticed the office had been used recently, someone was here but was it, Bruce Wayne? Looking at his desk, Laurel then heard the click of a gun's safety being turned off. _

_"Don't move!" A feminine voice ordered, Laurel lifted up her right sleeve on her denim jacket and turned off the power dampener that was on her wrist before slowing turning around. _

_"Well, your not Bruce Wayne," Laurel said to the stranger who despite her very beautiful face had hair and a punk/gothic style that reminded her of Sara's friend, Sin._

_"No, I'm his cousin and your trespassing on his property which is now legally mine," Kate said still pointing her pistol on Laurel._

_"His cousin, huh? Laurel wondered. "Look where is he, I need to talk to him," Laurel explained._

_"Don't you read the news? Bruce left Gotham, I haven't seen him in almost 3 years and, even if I did I wouldn't tell a stranger like you." Kate explained._

_"I'm not a stranger to him, okay," Laurel said._

_"What did you use to date?" Kate asked._

_"No, I mean ... sorta, we slept together a few dozen times but it was mostly a working relationship." Laurel reluctantly told her as Kate looked slightly amused. "I also know who he really is." She stated._

_"Look I'm sure it was love at first sight for you but clearly Bruce didn't feel the same way." Kate snarked but was slightly worried by Laurel's choice of words._

_"No, I mean I "know" who he really is," Laurel said, eventually, she put up her hands and with both of her index fingers put them next to her head, a signal that Kate took that this woman knew Bruce's secret, that Bruce Wayne is Batman. But she couldn't let this woman on._

_"Doesn't mean anything to me, lady," Kate said._

_"Okay, this is getting annoying," Laurel said, as she walked over to the Grandfather Clock in the middle of the bookcase. Kate fired twice aiming for the woman's arm, but much to her surprise and shock the woman simply tilted her torso as she moved to dodge the gunfire. _

_"You know, I'm glad you were aiming around my shoulder because I would have been very offended if you aimed at my head!" Laurel annoyingly stated. _

_"You're ... you're a metahuman, aren't you?" Kate asked._

_"Perceptive." Laurel sarcastically stated. __She then went for the Grandfather clock and pulled the lever inside it opening the secret elevator and entered it._

_"You coming?" Laurel asked. Kate then walked towards the elevator and stood next to her, knowing that whatever training she has had it wouldn't be able to stop a metahuman; at least not without more information. _

_"So, what's your name?" Laurel asked._

_"Kate, you?" Kate answered and asked._

_"Laurel," She replied as the elevator door closed and they went down._

The Batcave, Present

Laurel was dressed in black shorts and a navy blue sports bra, she went to go put on jeans and a shirt; however, Kate was being even more persistent about her decisions as of late. "Laurel, I think it's time you told them," Kate said.

"Tell them what exactly, Kate?" Laurel asked.

"Oh, I don't know, how about I'm alive for starters," Kate said.

"If I wanted them to know that I'm alive I would have told them by now don't you think. Besides, I told you the best way to protect them from what we're up against is by staying dead and that hasn't changed." Laurel explained

"Okay, maybe that was true when everyone only thought Oliver was the Green Arrow, but now they know for certain. Plus, if he and that CSI nerd are as good as you told me, what you've been trying to protect them from is going to come after them right now!" Kate angrily explained. "Besides, we both know the real reason you don't want to see them isn't because of what we're up against, it's because of what happened to you ... because of what you did." She solemnly stated.

"Kate ... don't." Laurel said starting to tear up.

Kate stood in silence there for a moment, while she empathized with her friend she also knew she needed her to put her personal feelings aside for the sake of the mission. "Well, when you get your head out your ass let me know. Oh, by the way, Oliver got a call from a Sara; what are the odds that it's your sister." She said, walking away from her friend. Laurel stunned by Kate's words, thought to herself about her sister and knew what she had to do; even if she dreaded it her very core.

Undisclosed Safe House, Present

Barry and Oliver arrived at the safe house with John, Dinah, Sara, Ava, Cisco, Caitlin, Sherloque, and Ralph all joining them.

"What do we have?" Oliver asked.

"We know that Laurel ... whoever this is has been in Gotham for a couple of months now. But what's more interesting is the doctor that was in charge of the bodies we saw in Cisco's vibe, had them destroyed, no records and no alerting their families." Sara stated.

"So let's talk to this doctor," Barry said.

"Look, we need to keep a lower profile in Gotham now that cops are aware that the Green Arrow's in town," Oliver said.

"How, did you two get busted by the way?" Ralph asked.

"And, how did you get out?" Cisco asked.

"Not important, Sara, do you have any ski-masks," Oliver asked.

"Got'em ready." Sara threw Oliver the masks.

"Barry, I need you to get the doctor." Oliver requested.

"Why, what are you gonna do?" Barry asked.

"Something that you and I have a differing opinion about," Oliver said, as Barry looked worried.

The Batcave, Present

Kate was on her computer, looking at multiple screens searching for Laurel's friends; wherever they were, they were well hidden. But with her skills and resources, they wouldn't stay hidden for long. Kate turned her head briefly as she heard Laurel's footsteps.

"So I never thanked you for bailing Barry and Oliver for me, thanks," Laurel said standing behind Kate's work desk.

"Thank me by taking my advice, about getting your head in the game." Kate shot back which annoyed Laurel but she got over it.

"It's in the game. Do we know where Barry and Oliver are? Laurel asked taking a closer look at the computer screens.

"Already done, been tracking them since they left the building but I lose them right about her," Kate said, pointing a certain section at the computer screen. "It's kind of a blind spot area, no surveillance camera's for about a mile." She explained.

"Maybe the drone could help?" Laurel asked.

"Already on it, be there in few more minutes. In the meantime, I've been asking around trying to see if anyone's asking questions they shouldn't. Do these two look familiar?" Kate asked and Laurel looked at the screen it was Cisco and Caitlin, Cisco that's how they found me; Laurel thought.

"That's Cisco Ramon and Dr. Caitlin Snow from S.T.A.R. Labs, Cisco's probably the one that found me," Laurel explained.

"How would he do that, you're pretty well hidden? Kate curiously asked.

"Trust me when I say, Cisco has "talents" you can't prepare for. I'm actually surprised this hasn't happened sooner." Laurel said. "Who were they looking at?" She asked.

"Dr. Scott Snyder, the medical examiner we've been looking into the last two weeks," Kate said reluctantly and Laurel's eyes looked frightened.

"We need to find them now!" Laurel yelled.

_Batcave, Flashback_

_Laurel exited the elevator and arrived at the Batcave with Kate, the set up was slightly different than she remembered but still impressive when Bruce brought her down here once or twice. _

_"Why do you think Bruce is still here? Kate asked._

_"Heard stories that the Bat came back to Gotham but not Bruce Wayne, figured Bruce was trying to lay low this time," Laurel answered._

_"Well, you're wrong about the Bat coming back to Gotham, at least the old one," Kate said with a smirk._

_"What does that mean?" Laurel asked in confusion. Kate walked past her towards the edge of the cave, she stood there for a moment and suddenly the lights turned on. Laurel look at what she was standing next to, the suit was similar to Bruce's but the emblem was slightly different and red and so was the mask as would show more of the face than before and attached to it was a wig of long bright red hair, but most of all the suit wasn't designed for a man and Laurel understood as Kate turned around to look at her. "So Batman isn't in Gotham but "Batgirl" is," She stated._

_"I prefer Batwoman, thank you very much," Kate said slightly annoyed which Laurel noticed and chuckled a little._

_"So, what brings the Black Canary to Gotham City?" Kate asked and Laurel moved back slightly._

_"How did you ..." Laurel said as she was interrupted._

_"Well if it wasn't your name, my office has a private security camera in it that only I have access too," Kate said as she walked over to Laurel showing her office camera that was linked to her phone, Laurel realized Kate was learning everything about her from the moment she walked into her office. "Also, one of Bruce's old employees set a pretty sweet facial recognition software, that checks for anyone including the deceased. So, right now I'm kinda torn about which question to ask first, like between how the hell are you still alive and what do you want with my cousin?" She asked as Laurel fell silent._

Parking Lot in Gotham City

Dr. Snyder was walking to his car after a long night's work pulling out his keys he accidentally dropped them, as he reached down for his keys suddenly he found himself in another location. It was very old and empty with a good amount of dust in some places, he also noticed a bunch of weapons on a stand; knives, swords, a spear, and a few he couldn't quite name. Snyder was bound to a chair, couldn't move his feet or his hands. Suddenly, Snyder heard a sound he couldn't quite place and then suddenly he felt something fly quickly by him and then looked at a wall; an arrow was in it. After the shot, a man in a black ski-mask came from behind him holding a bow, then took an arrow and pulled it back with his bow aiming right at Snyder.

"Dr. Scott Snyder, I would like your medical opinion on something." The man in the mask said as Snyder looked frightened.

* * *

**Author's Notes -** **Yes, Laurel hooked up with Bruce Wayne in this story; Batman and Black Canary have been romantically linked several times in DC comics so it is not a complete leap. In later chapters, you'll find when and how they hooked up.**

**Yes, Laurel is a metahuman, however, she will not have the same powers as her comic book counterpart. I figured with her doppelganger and Dinah Drake, having Sonic Screams she would need something different than what they have; although the powers that she will have will fit her character though.**

**Also, feel free to leave reviews. **


	6. Chapter 6 - Party Crashers

_Batcave, Flashback_

_Laurel and Kate were sitting down in the Batcave, Kate gave Laurel bottled water after hearing her story which she found very difficult to believe but not impossible._

_"So you're saying you were actually dead, you didn't fake your own death or anything? You were actually dead and that you came back to life. With powers to boot." Kate asked incredulously._

_"Pretty much," Laurel said bluntly, as Kate took almost drank her entire bottle after hearing her statement. _

_"Wow, I really wish I could say I didn't believe you or that your crazy but I can't," Kate said."I guess with a world where men can travel faster than the speed of light exist, so can resurrection; then again, living in Gotham almost all my life can make one believe in the impossible and especially in the crazy," Kate exclaimed._

_"Yeah, I know and believe me that's just the tip of the iceberg of the things I know," Laurel said._

_"So why are you in Gotham?" Kate asked._

_Laurel took a gulp of her water before answering. "The people that brought me back didn't just do it out of the goodness of their heart they wanted to use me, but I wouldn't let them. I've been tracking them down for the last two years, trying to stop them. Now, they've led me to Gotham." Laurel said._

_"What's your lead?" Kate asked._

_"That doesn't exactly concern you," Laurel said finishing her water and getting up to leave._

_"The hell it doesn't, this is my city!" Kate stated._

_"Look, I came here for Bruce because of his resources and his skills, and he's not here, and no offense Kate but you strike me of being more a soldier, but I don't need a soldier. I need a detective and Bruce, was the best detective I ever met." Laurel explained._

_"Your right, I am more of a soldier than a detective. But all of his resources are now my resources, also if your planning to do anything in my city your not doing it without my say so." Kate said, she then started to approach Laurel. "So metahuman or not, Bruce's ex or not, I'm gonna make life very difficult for you if you refuse to work with me." She said to Laurel's face._

_"You might find it difficult to make my life hard when I don't really have a life anymore." Laurel retorted._

_"I'm up for the challenge," Kate said with a smirk. Laurel stood there for a moment to consider Kate's aid but eventually, she decided to relent._

_"I guess, stubbornness and being a control freak runs in the family." Laurel sarcastically stated as she extended her open hand._

_Kate took her hand and shook it to confirm their partnership. "That and we have a tendency to attract some very hot babes such as yourself." She replied with a wink causing Laurel to smile._

_The Peregrinator's Club_

_Laurel and Kate were in an elevator together, heading to the top floor of the Peregrinator's Club; an exclusive club for Gotham's wealthy elite and bluebloods. Laurel was slightly envious of Kate's resources it took her less than an hour, where it would have taken Laurel weeks to find the location of the contact. She was nervous and uncomfortable, as these high society parties brought back memories of when she dated Oliver; she didn't like them or fit in with them, looking back she knew Ollie didn't either._

_"God, this is taking forever," Laurel said out loud._

_"That's Gotham for you, tallest buildings but the slowest elevators," Kate said. "So this contact do you have a name? She asked._

_"No," Laurel replied._

_"Then who do I know to look for?" Kate questioned._

_"If you can check for their pulse it will be much slower than normal," Laurel said._

_"Their pulse, are you serious?" Kate said looking skeptical at Laurel._

_"Just take my word for it," Laurel said. "By the way don't you think you could have chosen an outfit that draws less attention to us." She said, looking at Kate who was wearing a tuxedo with a red bowtie._

_"Trust me if I wore a dress, I'd still draw attention," Kate responded._

_"Yeah, you know I've met a lot of corporate billionaires and none of them have your number of tattoos," Laurel said._

_"And, those are ones you can see." Kate suggestively said. "Speaking of drawing too much attention. Don't you think you're doing just that wearing that dress." She said referring to Laurel's black dress which was a bodycon dress that was over the swoon and off the shoulder, with a v-bar that brought attention to her cleavage which was nice, Kate thought. But she found herself staring more at Laurel's great legs, as the dress was above her knees but had split that showed enough of her left thigh._

_"This is me not drawing attention, it's not overly revealing or expensive," Laurel replied._

_"I beg to differ," Kate argued, suddenly Laurel began laughing a little and Kate joined her._

_"Can we please change the subject?" Laurel asked._

_"Sure, hey, just curious what happened between you Bruce huh?" Kate asked, causing Laurel to look at her. "Considering you have similar interests at night, you two would be good together." She said._

_"Well for a while I thought it was just too much of a distance from Gotham and Star City to make it work, but truthfully, Bruce just reminded me of too much of an ex-boyfriend of mine," Laurel explained._

_"Yeah, I guess Oliver Queen and Bruce Wayne do have a lot in common aside from being vigilantes," Kate said, causing Laurel to look surprised at her. "Oh, come doesn't take a genius to figure out Oliver Queen is the Green Arrow." She explained._

_"But proving it is another matter and don't believe the tabloids," Laurel said trying to keep Ollie's secret but was secretly worried about the current public allegations about him._

_"Fair enough," Kate said, the elevator stopped the had reached the top floor. "Finally!" She elated. "Shall we?" She asked raising her arm for Laurel to lock hers in it._

_"Lets," Laurel said, locking arms with Kate as they finally got out of the elevator and entered the party full of rich snobs._

_The Peregrinator's Club_

_"Here you go," Kate said, giving Laurel who was standing out on the balcony, a glass of champagne._

_"Thanks, but, I don't drink," Laurel said._

_"What can't handle your booze?" Kate asked._

_"No, I just like it a little too much," Laurel replied._

_"Oh, well, then have a sip of mine then." Kate offered, as Laurel was about to object. "Just take my word for it." She said to reassure her. Laurel hesitantly took the glass and stared at the champagne for a long moment before finally taking a sip; thinking Kate wouldn't knowingly try to ruin the sobriety of a recovered alcoholic. Despite it being delicious, Laurel noticed there wasn't a drop of alcohol in the drink and gave Kate a sharp look. "You're not the only who has a problem with alcohol," Kate said as Laurel winced._

_"Are you in AA, God I can't remember the last time I had a meeting," Laurel said and recalled._

_"No, been too busy guess you have the same problem? Kate stated and asked at once, Laurel shrugged in agreement. "Before I became a Bat, I got thrown out of what I thought would be my life's career after that I just sorta became directionless. My life became a montage of partying, meaningless sex, and lots and lots of rum. It was Bruce that helped me get my act together, he made me realize I could still be a soldier even if I wasn't a legitimate one." She explained. "What's your reason?" She asked._

_"I turned to the bottle after my boyfriend was crushed to death by a building while he was saving my life, though in all honesty that was more of the final nail in the coffin after years unresolved grief and anger," Laurel explained._

_"You know considering you pulled off a "Jon Snow", I don't think anyone would blame you for turning to it again at least for a while; I definitely wouldn't," Kate said._

_"You probably already know this but I have a sister. Sara has been dead twice, once figuratively and once literally." Laurel said._

_"Wait, you and your sister have both come back from the dead. Damn, you know if you two weren't so sexy I'd swear you were cockroaches." Kate said bluntly._

_"Anyway, she made me and our parents think she was dead for years and when I found out she was still alive, I was livid. I got over it eventually, because she was alive and I wanted that more than anything. But over the years, I could never fully understand why she just didn't come home to us ... to me. Guess now that I'm in the same situation, I finally get it. What these people did ... to me, I don't think anyone I love will ever look at me the same ever again and ... even if they didn't I know I never will again." Laurel said slowly and sadly._

_Kate stood in silence for a moment and her phone made an alert noise. "Well, I can't help with that but I can with this." She said showing Laurel her phone. "You said to check for slower pulses well, I had a guy who sorta works for me hack into the cameras on this floor and uses a program the monitors' vitals, only one who has a pulse of a Blue Whale is this guy; meet Gilbert Broome." She said pointing to the man._

_"You and your cousin with the fancy toys." Laurel teased Kate. _

_Kate approached Broome, offering him a glass. "Drink," Kate said._

_"Thank you, Miss ?" Broome said and asked._

_"Kane, Kate Kane." She responded._

_"Ah, heiress to one of Gotham's most prominent families. Forgive me, but I was told you don't usually attend parties like this." Broome asked._

_"I don't, unlike the rest of these 1 percent blowhards I actually prefer to use my money to actually do something for the people. But I learned that a man that I could not miss the opportunity to meet was going to be here tonight, so here I am." Kate explained turning on the charm._

_"Forgive me Miss Kane, but given how you brought a far more fetching date; I take it you're looking for a business opportunity? He guessed referring to Laurel.  
_

_"You got me," Kate admitted._

_"Well I'm sorry Miss Kane, but my employers are not investors we are the ones who are invested in." He explained._

_"I know and I'm willing to pay "Manus in Nigrum" handsomely," Kate explained and Broome looked nervous._

_"How ... how do you know that name." He asked._

_"Before my cousin disappeared he left me the sole beneficiary of his inheritance and considerable resources, plus I had my own ways even before that. Believe me when I say there is nothing I can't figure out eventually." Kate confidently stated, getting close to Broome's ear. "I know that your organization brings the dead back to life and I want in." She whispered._

_"Miss Kane, that's an absurd notion." Broome nervously tried to deny._

_"Is it really?" Kate said then suddenly grabbed Broome's wrist and checked for his pulse. " Call me crazy, but I don't know a lot of medical conditions that cause someone to have such a slow heart rate, oh there's your pulse." She sarcastically stated, Broome jerked his wrist away and began checking it._

_Broome still shocked by Kate's answers went closer to her. "Let's discuss this somewhere more privately," Broome said. Laurel noticed Kate and Broome walking away, she followed them and kept her distance. She noticed they entered the game room for pool and darts, and shut the door before hearing it lock shut._

* * *

**Author's Notes - Manus in Nigrum is Latin which translates to the "Black Hand". Black Hand is a DC Comics character and Villain to the Green Lantern. Also, ****Gilbert Broome is a reference to Black Hand's creators, John Broome, and Gil Kane.**

**Also, I am not making Kate and Laurel a thing; Kate's just kind of a flirt as in the comics she was suggestive to Wonder Woman and Zatanna.**


	7. Chapter 7 - Interrogations

_The Peregrinator's Club Game Room, Flashback _

_"I hope you can understand my hesitation, Miss Kane but my employers prefer no one know about us. Unless we decided to directly approach them." Broome said._

_"Ask anyone I prefer to make the first move." Kate chided._

_"I can see that. But the question remains should we consider your offer? With the Kane family money and your inheritance from your cousin, the fact that you can afford our services is without question. But are you willing to be a part of our organization?" Broome ask._

_"What do you mean? Kate asked._

_"At the moment of your death, we of the Manus in Nigrum will restore you to life. However, since your new life was given to you by us, you will be one of us whether you want to be or not." Broome explained._

_"So it's absolute servitude, huh," Kate asked._

_"A small price for eternal life don't you think? To never face death again, seems to be a fair trade to me." Broome said to reassure her._

_"Yeah, except one small problem with that," Kate stated as she got up close in personal with Broome. "I've got this thing about servitude." She said, then headbutted Broome in the head, although pushed back Broome showed no signs of disorientation most people show from such an attack. But, Broome was unphased he took several swings at Kate and missed. Then with his next swing, Kate grabbed his arm with both hands and then delivered a knee strike to his solar plexus, and repeated it several times. Broome was a tall man and not all well built but still, he should have fallen to his knees after that barrage. Desperate, Kate kneed him in crouch but once more he had no reaction. _

_Stunned, Broome pushed Kate across the room and her back hit the pool table; Kate realized he was stronger than he looked and couldn't feel pain. Rushing towards her, Kate grabbed a pool cue and broke it over her knee using the broken cues she hit him in the face several times before eventually going low and stabbing Broome in the knees which prevented him from moving and then proceeded to knock him out finally with several strikes to his face with another cue stick. Kate realized he couldn't feel pain but his anatomy was still the same. Suddenly, Laurel kicked open the locked door and rushed over to Kate._

_"You okay?" Laurel asked._

_"If there's one thing us Gotham girls can do it's taking a beating and giving one back," Kate said sorely as she held her lower back. She then notices Laurel moved to Broome and with precision, breaks his arms. "I'd object, but apparently you weren't kidding about these guys." She exclaimed to Laurel._

_"Told you, they barely feel pain and because they were dead they push their muscles further than normal," Laurel explained._

_"I know, guess seeing is believing; I knew and I still wasn't ready for someone like him," Kate said, she then took a deep look at Laurel and began to wonder. "Are you like them? Is that why you're fast enough to dodge bullets?" She asked._

_"No, I'm not like them at all; in any way," Laurel explained sounding a little bitter. Kate went to Laurel and helped her carry Broome the unconscious Broome out the room. Everyone else at the party just assumed that Broome just had too much to drink and didn't even bother to look at him._

Undisclosed Safe House, Present

Oliver still in his ski-mask was interrogating Dr. Snyder. Oliver doing his best to interrogate the doctor, however, Snyder was surprising more resilient than Oliver expected even though Oliver was being "gentle" at least by his standards.

"I'll ask again, why did you destroy the bodies!" Oliver asked as he pulled and twisted the arrow inside the doctor.

"Urgh, you know I actually felt something just then," Snyder commented, Oliver stood back frustrated that his attempts were getting him nowhere. Oliver already had suspicions about Snyder but had to confirm, he left to go talk to others who were hiding in the next.

"I'm not getting anywhere with him." Oliver sighed as he lifted up his mask.

"It must be hard to torture someone who can't feel pain," Barry said, sounding a little judgemental as he personally never liked Oliver's choice to use physical coercion but let it go anyway.

"Take a break Ollie, give me a shot at him," Sara asked.

"It's not going to matter who hurts him, Sara, he's not gonna feel it," Oliver stated. "But, there is another way." He said, reaching for his phone he contacted his wife in Central City. "Felicity, it's me. Listen I need you to find everything you can about Snyder's closest friends and family; names, addresses, current problems, anything, and hurry." He said as he hung up.

"Oliver you're not gonna too ..." Barry said realizing what Oliver was about to do.

"He can't feel pain, Barry, but that doesn't mean he doesn't feel," Oliver said.

_Abandon Car Lot_

_Kate and Laurel interrogate Broome._

_"Wakey, Wakey, Jackass," Laurel said as was gently tapping his face while Broome was zip-tied to the steering wheel of a car in a car garage. Suddenly, Broome was tasered by Kate; even though his arms were broken and zip-tied she still felt the need to discomfort him a little before interrogation._

_"Oh I'm sorry, did you feel that?" Kate asked sarcastically as Broome only looked agitated at her._

_"Mr. Broome, take a look at me," Laurel said as she grabbed him by the cheek and directed him toward her gaze. "I'm sure you've heard about a woman who's been causing all kinds of hell for your organization. What was it that you call her again, oh that's right the "Bird of Prey"; I actually like being called that by the way." Laurel explained with a cocky smirk and Broome started to look intimidated._

_"I can't tell you where it is, Miss Lance," Broome said._

_"But you're going too," Laurel said._

Undisclosed Safe House

Oliver walked over to Snyder and showed him a picture on his phone. It was a picture of his brother and his brother's children and Snyder began to look frightened.

"I also have the list of their schedules, I know where your brother's taking his family for their annual Christmas vacation," Oliver said underneath his ski mask.

"Please, don't hurt them their innocent!" Snyder pleaded.

"Tell me what I want to know and I won't," Oliver said. Snyder looked nervous trying not to speak but still knowing that this masked man knew everything about his family he couldn't risk it.

"The bodies, I was ordered to destroy them. I was told not to leave a trace." Snyder began saying.

"Why, who were they?" Oliver asked.

"Trained soldiers, 3 were from our country, another was Mossad, and I think the other was a Hitman in the Columbian cartel," Snyder said. "It doesn't matter who they were they just had to be wiped off the earth," Synder said.

"I'm not too familiar with International agency relations but Mossad wouldn't work with soldiers from this government and both wouldn't work with a hitman of a drug cartel. What is this some kind of military cover-up?" Oliver openly explained and wondered.

"Uh, if only it was that simple." Snyder relented. "They were recruited because of their training, they needed soldiers on the ground. Just like I was recruited because of my connections to the coroner's office." He relented.

"Who recruited you?" Oliver asked.

"They're ... they're," Snyder started to speak but suddenly stopped talking as if something was preventing him from talking. Suddenly, Snyder looked at Oliver strangely for a moment before speaking. "Hm, Oliver Queen, am I right?" He asked and Oliver was shocked.

_Abandon Car Lot_

_"My partner here tells me that your organization sets up shop in this city, finds people to bring them back and has them work for you. So what she and especially I want to know is where is your shop, so I can get it the hell out of my city." Kate angrily stated trying to intimidate Broome._

_"Start talking, now!" Laurel said._

_"Alright, I." Broome started talking but then stopped all of the sudden, afterward he looked at Laurel and Kate much differently than before. "Dinah Laurel Lance, the Bird of Prey it's been far too long." He said and causing Laurel to look disturbed._

Undisclosed Safe House

"Hmm, I wonder which empty building this is; there's quite a lot in Gotham. Probably the same amount in Star City, wouldn't you agree Mr. Queen? Snyder said.

"I don't know, who you think your talking too but you're mistaken," Oliver said trying to cover his identity.

"Well let's see, you're torturing Dr. Snyder here with a bow and arrow and the Green Arrow was bailed out earlier tonight. So, let's just skip the pretenses, Mr. Queen." Synder said.

Realizing that keeping his identity was pointless, Oliver removed his ski-mask. "You know who I am, so who are you cause your not Snyder, are you?" Oliver asked in a rather disturbed manner.

"No, he's just my mouthpiece at the moment." The unknown person said through Snyder.

"What ... What in the hell are you?" Oliver asked.

"Someone with the power over the dominion of the dead, someone can back those you have loved and lost, as I have done for you with your precious Black Canary." The specter gloated.

"Are you telling me that you brought Laurel Lance back to life?" Oliver asked bewilderedly.

"That's exactly what I'm telling you, by the way, who was that look alike that showed up several months ago? I briefly thought that it was Laurel but no she's been hiding for so long. I wondered why she just pops up out the blue like that after these last two years of silently dismantling my operation." The voice told him. "But then I realized that couldn't be her, she wouldn't dare show her face to any of you after what we did to her." The voice sneered.

Feeling an old surge of protective anger towards his former love, Oliver grabbed Synder or rather his body by the shirt. "What you did to her? If you hurt her, so help me." Oliver threated him.

"Oh still a soft spot for the old flame, huh." The voice said mockingly. "Well, this has been enlightening I think I'll take my leave now." The voice said.

"What's that suppose to mean?" Oliver said in anger.

"Well now that I know based on your reaction that you truly believed that Laurel Lance was dead until now, I can conclude that it was an imposter that showed up in the Star City those several months ago. I also know that she's not with you now, hmm, that might be very interesting." He said.

"What will be interesting?" Oliver asked.

"Her killing you, I mean that is after we kill you first. You'll make the most formidable soldier to us, Mr. Queen." The voice said gleefully.

"I will never, never be a soldier for you!" Oliver shouted.

"Don't be so sure, enjoy your current life Mr. Queen your next one will come very, very soon." The voice stated. "What? What happened? How did you, oh god your Oliver Que.." Snyder now in control again started to say before Oliver punched him quickly in the face, knocking him out.

_Abandon Car Lot_

_"So, Laurel, are you going to introduce me to your new friend. Oh, I already know her, Kate Kane am I right?" The voice talking through Broome said._

_"Huh, Laurel what the hell is going on with Broome right now?" Kate asked looking perplexed._

_"Oh, this isn't Broome talking right now Miss Kane. But don't worry, I'm going not to spin Mr. Broome's head or vomit uncontrollably." The voice said malevolently mentioning the "Exorcist" before turning his gaze to Laurel. "How long has it been since we last spoke, Laurel? Since Tokyo, if I recall." He pondered._

_"And yet, we're always talking through a third party. Don't you think at this point in our relationship, we should have a face-to-face by now." Laurel asked._

_"Oh, I'm the shy type remember. I wouldn't say no to you turning yourself over to my associates." The voice suggested to her._

_"Not interested, make me another offer," Laurel asked._

_"We could just work together, legitimately this time instead of just trying to destroy my places in Gotham." The voice asked._

_"Okay, here's my response," Laurel said and she then grabbed the back of Broome's head and using her enhanced strength slammed his head right into the steering wheel, the amount of force that she used caused him to fall back in the seat dead wheel dead. Laurel looked hardened and walked away, while Kate just looked stunned and horrified at what Laurel just did._

Unknown Office Building

"I have an assignment for you." A man said hiding the shadows. "The Green Arrow's in town and he probably has friends, 1 of them at least." He explained.

"Kill them and bring them back here for conversion?" The other man responded.

"Always so quick." The man replied.

"It's why you brought me back. Have the forces ready, I call when I have a location." The other man said as he left the room in the blink of an eye leaving only a trail of red lightning.


	8. Chapter 8 - Compromised Location

The Safe House

Oliver rushed into the other room with everyone looking at him. "We need to get out of here!" He said frantically.

"Oliver, what's wrong?" John asked.

"Did Snyder tell you something?" Sara asked.

"I don't … I can't exactly explain right now. But our location is compromised, we need to leave now!" Oliver ordered.

"How is our location compromised, Ollie?" Sara asked.

"Sara, I don't know!" Oliver said and Sara looked worried for her friend, Oliver turned to Barry. "Barry, I need you to do recon. Anything on the way that looks suspicious, find it!" He ordered.

"On, it," Barry said and rushed out the safe house at super speed. In literally a second or less, Barry reappeared. "Lots of armored vans on the way, no telling how many there are, and it looks like they're circling in on our location," Barry stated.

"We need to get out here then," John replied.

"Or we stay and fight, figure out what we're up against," Sara said.

"Sara," Oliver tried pleading.

"Ollie, do you think these guys will lead us to Laurel?" Sara asked.

"Yes." Oliver reluctantly agreed.

"Then let's go welcome our guests," Sara said exited the room.

Oliver, Barry, John, Dinah, Cisco, Caitlin, Ralph, and Ava all got ready at the front door as it was the safe house's only entrance. Sherloque stayed behind in the back, insisting his job was to investigate criminals not fight them.

"Weapons ready everybody?" Dinah asked.

"We sure none of us should be in our super suits?" Ralph asked.

"I'll take care of that," Barry said then using his Flash ring to cause his suit to open and then super speed around the room and everyone except for Ava was dressed in their super suits. "Figure I'd save us the time," Barry said humorously.

"You should consider a career in fashion," Ralph said looking at his suit, then suddenly looked at Barry. "Wait, did you see us all naked?" He asked, causing everyone to look at Barry.

"Uh … Yeah. But … it … it was only for like a second." Barry embarrassingly and awkwardly admitted.

"You saw my girlfriend, naked!" Ava said annoyed.

"Only for a second," Barry said trying to defend himself.

"Hope you enjoyed the second," Sara said with an unashamed coy smile. Suddenly a trail of red lightning appeared in the room and took Barry away, causing the group to worry.

"Barry!" Cisco said with concern.

Elsewhere in Gotham

Barry in his Flash suit was dragged to another part of Gotham City, the speedster who dragged him then threw him on the ground with the momentum he had built caused him to be thrown considerably further. Barry started to get on his feet and saw his attacker, it was like he was looking at a ghost; literally.

"Hi, Flash did you miss your Rival?" Edward Clariss, the Rival stated.

"Clariss, but … you … your dead, Savitar killed you!" Barry explained failing to control his shock.

"Oh, he did. But fortunately, I met the nicest people who decided to bring me back." Clariss said as Barry got up. "And this time, I will prove that I HAVE NO RIVAL!" He yelled and rushed at Barry at superspeed and Barry soon followed.

Safe House

"Where did Barry go!" Caitlin asked.

"A speedster took him; oh god please don't let it be Thawne that took him!"

Cisco panicked. Suddenly the only door inside their safe house was blown off its hinges. Suddenly, smoke grenades were thrown in the room and men with guns suddenly appeared and started shooting. Those quick enough such as Oliver and Sara immediately ducked for cover, but the rest were protected by Ralph Dibny, who stretched and expanded his body to be a wall to protect the others.

John looked at him incredulously and as the Elongated Man give him a hilarious grin. "Just when I think I've seen everything." He said.

Oliver then appeared from his covered position and began shooting the targets with his arrows, Caitlin turned into Killer Frost and Cisco then followed his lead and dealing damage with their powers. John and Dinah began shooting the soldiers with their guns, while Sara and Ava blitzed the soldiers and began beating them; Sara with her batons and Ava with an assault rifle she stole after disarming one of the men.

Outside of the safe house, Laurel watched as more and more of the organization charged into the building. Laurel began feeling anxious, part of her wanted to go in and another part of her didn't. Suddenly her phone rang, and Laurel knew it was Kate, she was the only one who ever called her.

"Drone's arrived; things look pretty hectic," Kate said over the phone.

"I know I'm looking right at them, Kate," Laurel said.

"Well, get moving then," Kate said.

"It's not that simple," Laurel replied.

"Yes, it is, you help them, or they get killed, then you bring them in," Kate stated.

Pausing for a moment, Laurel knew she was right and gathered herself. "Be seeing you soon." She stated.

"Oh, and don't mention me by the way," Kate asked.

"So, you get to remain anonymous, but I don't," Laurel asked annoyed.

"They'll trust you more than me. Besides, staying under the radar is how I do my best work." Kate reminded her friend.

Laurel hung up her phone and turned off the power dampener on her wrist, feeling her powers come back to her she put her mask on and charged at the armored vans. Laurel snuck up on one of the soldiers and slammed his head against the van. Fortunately, the firefight inside and their focus on storming the safe prevented them from being heard. Grabbing an extendable baton on his person, Laurel charged the remain guards. Using the baton, she knocked out their guns and used her legs to go low, aiming at their knees. Once they were down and crouched, Laurel went for their heads, first with a knee strike, then an elbow, and finally a baton on the top of the skull.

Soldiers came and fired at Laurel, ducking down she grabbed one of the bodies and used him for cover. Laurel might have found it a repulsive tactic at one point but he was dead and could never be fully in control of himself. Laurel felt and heard the gunfire hitting his armored body, but her powers were already in effect. The earlier assaults on the soldiers and now on this gunfire, she knew she was getting stronger, faster, and her reflexes sharper. When they ran out ammunition and began to reload, Laurel rushed him and quickly delivered a flying knee strike right in his head. Then she delivered a sidekick to other soldier causing him to hit the armored leaving a noticeable dent. The last one, she grabbed his rifle from him and simply used the butt of it against his head, the protective helmet he was wearing didn't matter against the amount of force of her strength and the rifle.

Gotham City

Barry and Clariss were racing each other throughout Gotham, surprisingly Clariss was keeping up with him but that wasn't Barry's biggest problem. Clariss was physically stronger than him, the blows that he took from him weren't just typical Speedster blows generated from Speed Force momentum it was like he had something else that was added to attacks. Additionally, Barry attacks weren't doing anything to Clariss either as if he couldn't feel pain; like Snyder, he thought. This was a problem for Barry because of Clariss' inability to feel pain, his body adaptive to the extreme forces that come from running at super speed, and the regenerative capabilities of his cells made him for very difficult to take down. But, Barry had an idea, finding an abandoned warehouse he ran into it with Clariss following him.

Clariss rushed at Barry but Barry managed to dodge it and hit one of the support beams. Barry then grabbed Clariss and threw him against another beam and delivered several super-speed punches the force of them did nothing to Clariss but did damage to the beam. Clariss kneed Barry in the chest but then hit him in the face causing Barry to hit the ground, Clariss was about to strike him again but Barry phased right through the attack and then managed to escape. They ran around the room several times less than a second, but Barry damaged several other beams during the run before Clariss eventually he caught him and threw him on the floor.

"Not fast enough Flash," Clariss said mockingly as he held Barry by the throat.

"Actually it's more like your just not smart enough!" Barry struggled to say due to Clariss choking him.

"What?" Clariss asked. Then generating enough Speed Force momentum he kicked Clariss in the chest and sent him flying into the damaged beam causing it. to break completely. Sounds were coming all across the room, Clariss suddenly realized the Flash's plan. Damaging the support beams throughout their fight started to cause the second floor to become unstable and eventually it dropped on Clariss himself. Barry managed to get out just before the floor collapsed on him too. Barry decided to wait outside for a moment, he knew the building wouldn't kill Clariss but he needed to be sure that it would immobilize him for a while.

The Safe House

The group was still struggling with the armored soldiers, every time they knock them down they got back up. Oliver had some experience with this due to dealing with Sampson, he began aiming for the various parts of their anatomy that they still needed even if they couldn't feel it.

"Go for the tendons, break their limbs, that's the only way they'll stay down," Oliver yelled.

Sara quickly followed Oliver's instructions, using grappling hold she got on top of his head and threw him to the ground, grabbing the back of his arm she pressed her knee against it and pulled breaking it. Ava taking the assault rifle covered for Sara, aiming at the soldier's knees they quickly fell on the floor and she kicked their heads. Killer Frost shot razor-sharp icicles into their bodies carefully aiming for the parts of the body that they needed in order to properly move. John slowly began moving to the front of the door and shooting the soldiers along the way, one jumped him but John managed to throw him to the ground and the double-tapped him in each knee. Suddenly, several more soldiers appeared the explosives they used increased the size of the entrance even more and allowed even more soldiers to come threw. John raised his gun to shoot but after three shots he ran out of ammunition, one the soldiers aimed the gun at John and was about to fire.

But suddenly, a woman in ski-mask appeared and delivered a side-kick to the soldier's right side that sent him across the room, saving John's life. Turning to the others, she began fighting the others. Sara caught a glimpse of the woman that showed up, she was surprised she hadn't seen anyone move at that speed or hit like that since Slade; but it wasn't just speed and power the woman had, it was also skill, she could fight. The woman in the ski mask, Oliver, John, Sara, Dinah, Ralph, Cisco, Killer Frost, and Ava gradually took them all down. The group all stood tired from the fight and looked at the mysterious ally, she then took off her mask.

_Bat Cave, Flashback_

_After disposing of Broome, Kate and Laurel arrived back to the Bat Cave but Kate was clearly not happy with Laurel's decision to just kill Broome because of what ... whatever the hell that had happened to him. She was going to make that clear._

_"What the hell was?" Kate yelled._

_"Not entirely sure. I've never fully understood what that is when he does that; closest I think of is either some kind of mind control or possession." Laurel answered as she removing her earrings._

_"No, I mean the part where you just flat out kill a guy." Kate viciously replied._

_"Oh, right, I guess out of context that does look bad doesn't," Laurel stated._

_"Ya think? Look I'm not my cousin, 9 times out of 10 not killing someone is the right choice but what you did was flat out execution." Kate angerly stated._

_"Look, Broome was already dead ok and he was the Black Hand's puppet literally. Your not fighting the living your fighting the undead that can be taken over by psychopath at any given time." Laurel explained._

_"Well based on the zombie flicks I've seen he didn't seem that undead to me," Kate said._

_"Well, he was." Laurel retorted._

_"And what about you? How are you not like them?" Kate asked and Laurel just stood silent. "Look you've heard that guy, there are places in Gotham, meaning more than one. And if you're staying in this city, your working with me. So I'm going to need to know everything. Okay." She explained to her._

_"Fine, but under one condition my friends and my family can never know I'm alive, I don't want to bring this war to their doorsteps." Laurel basically begged the billionaire heiress._

_"Deal. Partners?" Kate asked as she reached out her hand._

_"Partners," Laurel said as she took her hand and shook it._

The Safe House

Oliver, Sara, Ava, John, Dinah, Cisco, Killer Frost, and Ralph all stood in silence staring at Laurel Lance, alive and in front of them.

Staring intently at most of her friends and her family, Laurel reluctantly spoke up. "So who missed me?" She asked.


	9. Chapter 9 - The Black Hand

No longer hearing gunfire or people being beaten, Sherloque assumed the invaders failed to take the group down. Leaving the other room, Sherloque saw his compatriots all stare at the woman who was the primary lead of their organization. Although she was different than the photos Monsieur Queen and Capitaine Lance showed of her, the shorter hair she was sporting was the biggest observation he saw.

"Hah, Bonjour Mademoiselle Lance or am I addressing the Black Siren?" Sherloque asked her.

"What's a Black Siren?" Laurel asked.

Pointing her gun at Laurel, Dinah immediately drew everyone's attention. "It's you unless you convince us otherwise." She said.

"Dinah, calm down!" Oliver ordered.

"Dinah? So, my replacement doesn't just have my code name but my first name too?" Laurel mused.

"Wait, Oliver we … we need to know for sure." Sara said as she slowly approached Laurel. "If your really my sister, tell us something only she would know." She asked.

Laurel stared at John. "Dig, after Oliver and Felicity went on their little vacation; You, me, and Thea we dealt with some arms dealers, I took a bullet for you that night," Laurel said and showed them a bullet wound on her right shoulder. "It was a through and through, lost a lot of blood. Thankfully, Thea and I share the same blood type, just like you and me, Ollie." She said as John looked even more stunned.

Turning to Oliver. "Ollie, once when we were alone in your family's mansion, I was in your room. I asked to see your scars." Ollie stood silently at Laurel. "I wondered how, how you could possibly survive all that torture and all that pain. You told me that there were times you wanted to die, but in the end …" Laurel said before being interrupted by Oliver.

"In the end, there was something I wanted more," Oliver recalled that night he and Laurel shared their first kiss since he came from Lian Yu.

Finally, looking at her sister. "Sara, when … when we were kids, you had this pet canary that Dad got for you," Laurel said as she was starting to tear up. "It was always singing and annoyed us all to no end, one day you heard the saying a "bird should never be caged" so you got the idea to let that crazy little thing out and it flew outside and never came back." She said as tears were forming in Sara's eyes too. "You were pretty much crying all week and all week I held you as you cried … you … you made swear never to tell anyone that. Sorry, for telling." She finished.

Placing her hand on Laurel's face, Sara waited for a moment before pulling her in arms and hugging her as tightly as humanly possible. Laurel could feel her sister's tears on her cheek and reluctantly began hugging her as well. Eventually, Sara stopped hugging her sister and look at her intently. "You're alive, how, how are you alive?" She asked Laurel.

"I … I'll tell you later, I promise." Laurel said, before leaving Sara's gaze and looked at everyone else. "Look I know you guys have a lot of questions right now but first we need to get the hell of here, our location is not safe." She explained.

"Laurel you can't expect to just show up and not have us talk about how you're alive," Oliver stated in shock and slightly angry.

"Oliver, we don't have time. Where's Barry, I know he's here." Laurel asked.

Suddenly, as if hearing his own name Barry showed up. "Hey guys, hey … Laurel, is this Laurel?" He awkwardly asked.

"It's me, Barry," Laurel said.

"Uh, no offense but that's something an imposter might say," Barry said.

"It's her Barry, really." Sara reassured him."

"Oh, cool, hey Laurel glad you're alive," Barry said with a smile and wave.

"Good see you too," Laurel said, she threw Barry a piece a paper. "Get us to this address, now." She ordered.

"Wait, what?" Barry confusingly asked.

"Barry just do it," Oliver replied. Nodding, Barry took Laurel, Oliver, Sara, Ava, Sherloque, John, Dinah, Ralph, Caitlin, and Cisco to the street of Rucka Williams. John began vomiting, because of Barry's speed taking him away.

"Guess some things never change," Laurel stated. "This way," Laurel said as she opened one the door on the street. Everyone followed her down the steps as she turned on the lights, the setup had computers like at the Arrowcave as well as training equipment that was almost entirely identical to the bunker's as well.

"Well, this looks familiar," John said.

"Yeah, guess the décor is a sign that I got homesick." Laurel openly acknowledged.

"So, why didn't you come home, Laurel." Oliver tenderly.

"Ollie, what … I know you guys kidnapped Snyder; I've been staking him out for two weeks; so, what do you know?

"Before the safe house was stormed, Snyder or someone who was talking through Snyder told me that he brought you back to life. And that you've been alive for two years now." Oliver explained.

"Wait, two years, you've been alive for two years?" Sara asked Laurel how just stood silent. "Laurel tell me this isn't true," Sara demanded to know.

Pausing for a moment, Laurel eventually answered. "It's true, Sara." She said sadly.

Everyone stood in shock for a moment before Sara eventually spoke up again. "All this time you've been alive, and you didn't tell me, or Oliver, or the team, or Dad. Laurel, Dad!" Sara said her anger grow until she shouted at the last moment because their father died, and Laurel wasn't there for him.

Staring directly at her sister. "Before you judge me, I want to at least hear my side of the story first and I also want you to remember that you made me, and our parents think you were dead for years too." Laurel reminded her and Sara just stood silently.

"And what is your side of the story, Laurel?" John asked.

"And how can you explain Clariss not being dead?" Barry asked as Cisco and Caitlin looked at him.

"Clariss?" Laurel puzzled.

"Clariss, as in Edward Clarriss the Rival?" Caitlin asked.

"He was the speedster that dragged me out of the safe house," Barry told Caitlin, then turned his attention to Laurel. "He was killed two years ago, but he's alive just like you. How?" He asked.

Laurel took a seat on a nearby chair and stared at everyone. "Look, what you have to understand is that … the last two years of my life have changed me. Mostly not for the better … and the reason for it, for all my actions as of late starts with an organization the one we are currently up against: Manus in Nigrum, it's Latin for." Laurel explained before being interrupted by Sherloque.

"The Black Hand." He answered.

"Laurel, who are these guys?" Oliver asked.

"All of us here have fought the worst kinds of criminals: assassins, terrorists, serial killers, and more. But the Black Hand … they might be the very worst of them all." Laurel explained sounding bitter.

"Why is that?" Barry asked.

"Imagine an organization, that offers you or anyone in the world the chance to bring the people you love back to life. An organization that could allow you to possibly to live forever even. That's what the Black Hand does, they can bring people back to life. The only catch is you're not really alive, you're a reanimated corpse basically. Everything that made you, well you, is there but you would be under the Black Hand's control." Laurel explained and got up. "These people, they exploit people's desperation, grief, and loss. If they think you could be useful to them or the people you so desperately want back could be useful to them or even if you have enough money and resources. They can and will exploit you." Laurel passionately stated with noticeable anger. "And, how could you possibly turn them down? Because they are giving you something that on some level, we all want, to never face death in life. To see … and to hold … the people we love again." She said wiping away her tears that were forming.

"Is that what they did to you, Laurel?" Oliver asked.

"Yeah." Laurel took a long paused before speaking again. "When you told the public my identity as the Black Canary, the Black Hand thought that with my skills as a vigilante and my legal mind as a kickass lawyer would make me a good soldier for their organization. Plus, the fact that I came back with powers was a bonus to them." She explained.

"Wait you have powers now?" John asked.

"Yeah," Laurel replied.

"I saw her fight, her strength, the speed at which she moves it was like I watching Deathstroke," Oliver replied.

"This meta you mentioned, Barry. I can assure you he is not the only one, the Black Hand has brought back all kinds of people to be there soldiers. Metahumans, former military, spies, and more are all under their control. There more dangerous now that they can't feel pain and are stronger too because they can push their muscles further. Though they have their weaknesses, headshots work best like you were shooting a regular zombie." Laurel explained.

"Great we're dealing with zombies, now I've seen everything," John said.

"Faced zombies before, sorta, but these guys are coordinated, and they aren't rabid." Sara retorted to Dig.

"They're not zombies, they're reanimated corpses." Laurel corrected John and her sister. "Additionally, someone can control them, make them do whatever they want, follow any command, and speak through them, like a ventriloquist." She explained.

"Are you a reanimated corpse, Laurel?" Cisco asked. "I mean how do we know; you're not being controlled by them." He said nervously.

"Well if I was, I would have helped them turn you into corpses, so they can bring you back. But they can't control me, for whatever reason I can't be controlled by them. It's also the reason I'm … why they are hunting me." Laurel spoked.

"Hunting you?" Oliver asked.

"When they brought me back, they soon found out that they couldn't control me, maybe it's my powers or something but they can't explain. I managed to get away from them, but they are still hunting me and I'm hunting them, bringing them down." Laurel recalled.

"That still doesn't explain why you didn't me or any of us here that you were alive!" Sara said trying to control her frustration.

"In case you forgot Sara, Ollie told everyone I was the Black Canary. So, I had to stay dead, because it would not have been hard for them to find out that he was the Green Arrow because of my association. Then, they might go after Team Flash and the next thing you know, they have the fastest man alive on speed dial!" Laurel turning her frustrations to Sara.

"Okay, that's enough." Oliver got in between the two sisters and his ex-lovers before turning to Laurel. "Laurel, we can talk about your reasons later but right now they don't matter. What matters is that the Black Hand is coming for all of us now and we need to be ready." He reminded everyone.

Caitlin approached Laurel. "Laurel can I have a sample of your blood, among other things?" She asked.

"Why?" Laurel asked.

"Because, if we can understand why you can't be controlled like the rest of the Black Hand's corpses maybe we can use it against them," Caitlin explained then turned to Barry. "Barry could grab me some samples from our "friends" at the safe house?" She asked.

"On it," Barry said then super-speeded out of the room, then appeared just as fast handing Caitlin vials of blood and bags of hair and skin. "Delivery for Dr. Snow," Barry said with a smile as he took them.

"I'll get you some lab equipment," Laurel said as she walked away leaving everyone to themselves.

"Everyone, let's get to work," Oliver said out loud.

Ava walked over to Sara putting her hand on her arm. "Hey Babe, you gonna be ok?" She asked.

"Oliver's right, the mission comes first," Sara said as she walked away.

* * *

**The street that is the location of Laurel's safe house is a reference to Batwoman writers Greg Rucka and J.H. Williams III. **


	10. Chapter 10 - Catching Up

Laurel Lance's Safe House

To say that the medical equipment that Laurel had on hand in the safe house was inadequate was an understatement. The blood work from the reanimated corpses was fascinating to Caitlin, at least from a scientific perspective.

"So, the reanimated or undead, whatever you want to call them. Their cells show signs of decay but it's being kept in check somehow by a chemical that I can't seem to identify that's basically putting the decay in stasis." Caitlin explained.

"Does Laurel's blood show the same signs?" Barry asked.

"No, Laurel's bloodwork is completely normal. Aside from the traces of dark matter in her system." Caitlin answered. "I wonder if it's possible that her powers are somehow the key to the Black Hand's inability to control her." She pondered.

"Speaking of powers, Laurel what exactly can you do now?" Oliver asked before everyone turned to look at Laurel.

"Best I show you," Laurel said, she then pulled out a device that was all too familiar to the members of Team Arrow, especially Sara.

"My old sonic device," Sara exclaimed.

"Better cover your ears," Laurel said then turned the device and everyone covers their ears in pain even a glass shattered as a result. Despite this Laurel was unaffected by the sonic device and not because she was wearing special earplugs. Turning the device off after several seconds, she then walked over to a punching bag. Then she delivered a push kick that sent the bag flying several feet to the other side of the room, leaving everyone startled and impressed.

"I don't know much about science, but what I do know is that ever since I came back from the dead whenever I'm around too much sound I get stronger and the more sound I take in the longer it seems to last. I'm also faster, more durable, my reflexes are sharper, and I heal quicker too; this body will never have a scar again." Laurel explained.

"Awesome!" Cisco said. "I mean your body absorbs sound waves and converts them to enhance your physical abilities. How strong can you get by the way?" He asked in a giggling manner.

"Don't know never bothered to find out. My power is always active so I have to wear this dampener on my wrist, so I can turn it on and off." Turning to Barry with a mischievous smile she spoke. "Besides, some of us like to use our skills more than our powers to save the day." She teased him.

"Hey, I saved the day without using powers." Barry defended himself.

"When was that again, Barry?" Oliver asked with a cocky grin.

"Uh, well, uh? I'll get back to you on that." Barry reluctantly admitting defeat and most of the room began chuckling.

"We'll as fascinating as your powers are Laurel and believe me, I would love to run some tests on you, I don't think your powers have anything to do with your … resurrection," Caitlin told everyone. "I'll need to run more tests, also I would much appreciate better lab equipment." She requested.

"I'll see what I can do," Laurel said with a smile.

"Laurel, there's one thing you haven't quite explained yet," Oliver asked.

"Only one." Sara sniped with Laurel giving her an annoyed glare.

"The person that spoke through Snyder, who is he?" Oliver asked, interrupting before the sisters' argued.

"I don't know, I've spent two years tracking him down and have very little," Laurel said.

"Well, what do you know Laurel?" Barry asked.

"I know that he is careful, he always has someone else doing his dirty work. But I'm also fairly certain that he's a metahuman." Laurel explained to everyone.

"What makes you think that?" Cisco said.

"The last two years I spent a lot of time tracking down leads, eventually I found out the Black Hand was formed in early 2014. In Central City." Laurel said looking at Cisco, Barry, and Caitlin.

"That's not too long after the particle accelerator exploded." Barry stating the obvious.

"That's good," Ava said with everyone looking at her. "I mean if you know when and where in history the Black Hand organization showed up, when categorizing the suspects, knock a few of them down, and then we can find the meta before he's too powerful to track or identify." She further explained.

"I'm sorry but who are you again?" Laurel asked to approach, Ava. "I mean I know that's this year's doppelganger of Dr. Wells and that's my successor. But you." She said pointing to Sherloque and later Dinah.

"Oh, I'm Ava Sharpe, Director of the Time Bureau," Ava answered Laurel extending her hand to shake.

Awkwardly taking her hand to shake it, Laurel asked. "Time Bureau?" She asked.

"An organization that oversees the timeline, I'm also dating your sister by the way," Ava mentioned a little nervously figured Laurel figure it out anyway.

"You and Sara are dating?" Laurel pondered.

"Yeah we have place together and everything," Ava said.

"Your living with someone now? Laurel asked turning her attention to her sister.

"Lots changed since you died, which you would know if you bothered to show up alive," Sara replied with a cold and apathetic tone in her voice as she walked away.

"Well, I'm gonna go run down the leads in 2014," Ava said and activated her time watch to open a portal to the Time Bureau headquarters which Laurel and some of the others found surprising.

"Yo, Yo, Yo!" Cisco hollered. "Can I tag along; I so need to see this "Men in Black" HQ." He said with excitement.

"It's against regulations to bring unauthorized civilians to the Time Bureau." Ava seriously stated.

"Ava, his powers helped us find Laurel in the first place. He'll be useful for your search." Barry reminded the Time Director.

"Plus, I should mention I've helped almost everyone in this room save the world more than once," Cisco stated.

"Fine, but no pictures and you don't leave my side, got it," Ava instructed him.

"You got it, boss lady," Cisco said with a salute and walked through the portal with Ava as it closed.

Sometime later

Laurel was standing on the edge of the rooftop of her pad, just watching Gotham at night; as mad as it was there was also a dark beauty to it as well. She could hear the sirens in the distant background and felt the wind on her face, to her surprise it was a warmer night in Gotham than the last. She heard the door to the rooftop opened and there stood Oliver walking towards her.

"Has Ava come back yet?" Laurel asked Oliver.

"No, she's still running down leads. Apparently, investigating into alleged metahumans that can reanimate the dead isn't exactly in the Time Bureau's jurisdiction." He explained joining her on the edge.

"Mmh, is it weird that I know that a time-traveling government agency exists and yet all I can really think about is that my sister is sorta living with someone." She exclaimed.

"No, not really." He said with a small laugh. "For what it's worth, I've only just met her, but she and Sara really seem to care about one another." He told her.

"I'm glad for that. Maybe when she gets back, she convinces Sara to be less pissed at me, not that I don't deserve it from her … or you." She said sadly.

"Who says I'm pissed at you? He asked surprising her.

"Aren't you?" She replied and turned her to look directly into her face.

"Laurel you're alive. Ever since … after you died, there wasn't a single day I didn't miss you when I didn't wish I couldn't bring you back. That I didn't wish that someone or something didn't bring you back to me … I mean us." Oliver said trying to ignore whatever feelings that were showing up. "As for you making us all think you were dead, I can't be mad at you for that without being mad at myself." He relented.

"What does that mean?" She asked pondering the answer.

"The five years everyone thought I was dead … I spent so long trying to find a way to get home. Then the day came when … when I had the opportunity to go home whenever I wanted but choose not to." He said and Laurel looked stunned. "The things … the things I did to survive, my time away from home it made me feel like I was a monster. A monster that would infect the lives of everyone he touched, including you." He recollected.

"I'd wish I said I didn't get it, but I do." She stated.

"That's why I'm not mad at you, because something tells me your going through something very similar." He said.

"Guess I am, but I … I really, really don't want to talk about it right now … even with you, Ollie." She reluctantly spoke.

"Fair enough, just … right now there are three things I want you to know. One, Sara will come around just give her time." He said with a smile.

"Why do I feel like you said the same thing about me to Sara when she came back from the dead." She summarized.

"I did actually." He remembered. "The second thing you need to know is that when you are ready to talk, I'll be here for you … like you were for me all those times." He said tenderly.

"And, the third thing." She asked.

Placing a hand on her cheek Laurel was briefly flustered, Oliver then moved his to her hair and as he did, he said. "I … really, really like your new hair."

"Thanks, I like yours too." She said rubbing the top of his buzz-cut hair. The two started laughing at first but then as the laughter died down the two old friends and lovers just stared at each other before hugging each other; Oliver's was so tight he might have crushed. "I missed you, I've … you have no idea how much I missed you." Oliver proclaimed.

"I've missed you too, Ollie." She said tearing up.

John arrived on the rooftop and both Oliver and Laurel turned to look at him John as they heard the door opened.

"Hey," John said, as saw that he was clearly interrupting a moment between them and felt guilty about. Uh, we got a lead." He said and Oliver and Laurel followed him downstairs.

"So, Ava and Cisco looked over Central City in 2014 and gave us a suspect list of over 2,600 known people that got the meta-gene. They removed the metas that are either dead or have already been cataloged, and Cisco found 52 suspects." Sara explained to Laurel and handed her files to her which Laurel began browsing through them. Laurel took out her phone and began taking pictures of the suspect photos.

"What are you doing, Laurel?" Oliver asked.

"I have contact in Gotham City, she has considerable resources. Hopefully, she'll get us somewhere." Laurel explained before finally sending the photos to Kate, 30 minutes later she called back.

"Hey, Laurel where did you get the photos?" Kate asked as she was looking through her computer with programs analyzing the pictures Laurel sent her.

"Met up with my old crew," Laurel said. Eventually, Kate got matches on all of them, but one stood out to her the most.

"Laurel, what are chances that one William Derek Hand is the leader of Manus in Nigrum?" Kate asked rhetorically.

"What, his last name is actually Hand! What kind of stupidity goes through someone's head to actually name their own secret organization after themselves?" Laurel asked.

Overhearing her, Dinah joined in on Laurel. "In my experience as a cop, arrogance, and egotism." She said bluntly.

"Good reason as any. You have a location on Hand?" Laurel asked Kate.

"On Derek Hand, no, but on his alias, Wilbur Palm is currently in Gotham. No idea where he is but he's made a few dozen trips to … dammit, Arkham." Kate explained.

"Well, as a good place as any to start. Be on standby." Laurel said hanging up on Kate, then turned to everyone else. "So, my contact thinks this guy, Derek Hand, might be who we're looking for. She managed to track an alias of his, to pretty much the worst place in Gotham." She exclaimed.

"Where?" Sara asked.

"Arkham Asylum, it's a madhouse for the criminally insane," Laurel said with a little fear behind her voice.

The Batcave

Knowing Laurel needed back up, despite reuniting with her friends and family. They didn't know the Asylum as well as Kate herself, so Kate went to her suit and prepared to make her proper debut to Laurel's friends.

* * *

**My inspiration for Laurel's powers in this story was inspired by the X-Men character, Dazzler. Dazzler is can absorb sound and convert it into forms of light such as lasers. In Laurel's case, she absorbs sound and converts it into enhancing her physical attributes. In case, no one paid attention Laurel's enhanced physicality is comparable to a Mirakuru soldier like Deathstroke. In addition to her enhanced strength, speed, reflexes, agility, stamina, durability, and healing; Laurel is immune to sonic attacks because they only make her stronger and her powers last longer. As for the dampener on her wrist, Laurel wants not overly rely on her power and only uses it in dire circumstance; like her comic book counterpart with her Canary Cry.**

**William Hand is the real identity of the Comic Book counterpart of Black Hand and Wilbur Palm is also alias he has used in the comics.**


	11. Chapter 11 - Arkham Asylum

The entrance of Arkham Asylum

Oliver, Barry, Laurel, Sara, John, Caitlin, Ralph, and Sherloque all stood out in the front of the gates of Arkham. While Dinah stayed behind in case Cisco and Ava came back. Some such as Ralph, were particularly nervous going inside.

"Do we really have to go into a nuthouse," Ralph asked nervously.

"Oh, come on Ralph, I'm sure it's not that bad," Barry replied.

"Dude have you seen Cuckoo's Nest or Shutter Island, any film with a madhouse in it is bad news." Ralph nervously exclaimed.

"I'm afraid stretchy here is right this probably is one of the worst places in the world, more than half of the lunatics in there are as smart as they are mad or have some special … abilities." Laurel explained to everyone.

"Well, you have to admit it is rather clever hiding in the one place in Gotham no one wants to go to," Sherloque admitted.

"That or he is just as nuts as the rest of them," Sara remarked. "Anybody got any ideas on how we can break into a mental asylum." She curiously asked.

"I have some ideas," Oliver answered. "But we're going to have to split up." He said looking at all them as they looked to him wondering what his ideas are.

At the front desk inside Arkham, Sherloque came through rolling Caitlin in a wheelchair and addressed the nurse.

"Uh, how can I help?" The nurse asked.

"Bonjour," Sherloque said tipping his hat. "New patient transfer from Gotham Central Hospital, her doctor said Arkham was the appropriate place to treat her condition." Sherloque lied.

"What's the diagnosis?" She asked him.

"Persistent sub-thermal homeostasis with, uh, involuntary gelid substantiation," Sherloque said and he noticed the nurse clearly did not understand what he was saying, so Caitlin took it as a sign and quickly changed into Killer Frost with her hair turning white and her eyes glowing. She then proceeded to freeze the handles on her wheelchair and the nurse look stupendous.

"She gets cold and freezes stuff." Killer Frost stating the obvious to the nurse.

"Yeah … We got a few of those in here like that." She said awkwardly. "Fill this out." She said giving Sherloque the papers.

"D'accord," Sherloque said taking the papers and pen.

Other entrance in Arkham Asylum.

"Hi, I'm Special Agent John Diggle from A.R.G.U.S. and this my associate, Oliver Queen," John said to the security officers, who then looked shocked when he introduced Oliver. "We are working a very sensitive joint operation with the GCPD, we need access to faculty immediately." He ordered.

Ralph disguised himself as a security guard with the security credentials that Sara stole, walked both her and Laurel in to pose as new doctors.

"Okay, I'm going get these back to the guards we swiped and go cover the outside with Barry," Ralph said briefly switching to his normal face.

"Thanks, Ralph," Laurel said.

"Any chance I can get a full physical, doctors?" Ralph asked with a perverted grin, which causes both Laurel and Sara to briefly look at each other before punching Ralph in the face, however, because of his elastic powers their punches just went into his face doing no damage and leaving both sisters a little disgusted at this.

The six went exploring through the Asylum, Oliver and John passed the patient's holding cells and came across a few names: P. Isley, J. Crane, R. Hayden, and M. Guggenheim. Caitlin eventually came across the storage room where they kept patient's items and clothing; some of much looked like weaponry and equipment. Sara and Laurel headed to the lower floors and began walking their way to the medical room, where autopsies were performed on patients who had died in the asylum; hopefully from natural causes.

"Gotta say you look good in that coat, you should have become a doctor," Laurel said referring to her and Sara's disguises.

"We both know I didn't have the grades or the discipline to be one," Sara said as she and Laurel walked down the hallway. "Plus, since I've been with the Legends I've posed as a doctor and a nurse more times than I can count." She recalled.

"Sounds fun, you should tell me about it later," Laurel said.

"Like you told me about how you were still alive." Sara snarked. Laurel then stopped for a moment but walked a little faster to grab Sara's wrist to turn her around.

"Look, Sara enough!" Laurel yelled.

"We're on a mission," Sara said silently.

"Yeah and we can put it on pause for 52 seconds, for you get what's bothering you out of your chest and stop the passive aggression," Laurel yelled and Sara paused for a moment.

"Trust me, passive aggression is the best you're going to get from me because if it was regular aggression powers or not, you'd be on the floor right now!" Sara angrily yelled. "How could you play dead for so long! You weren't even there when Dad died!" She yelled.

"You don't think that I don't hate myself for that! But I couldn't tell him I was alive otherwise the whole team would have been endangered including you, besides how can you judge me when you did the same damn thing!" Laurel yelled back at her.

"Because you're not me, dammit!" Sara yelled, and Laurel looked startled. "Your right everything that you've done since you apparently came back from the dead … lying to our friends, our family, and god knows what else; that's everything straight out my playbook!" She said still yelling. "And, that's what pisses me off the most about this Laurel, that you could do these things to our family … the same things that I did and not realize how wrong it was to do that."

"Sara, you have also thought that I was perfect, that I was the good one and that you were the bad one, the rebel. But the truth is I am as flawed as you are, hell, I'm probably even more messed up than you are now." Laurel stated.

"Take it from me you're not!" Sara replied hotly.

"Take it from me, I just might be," Laurel said before returning to walking down the hall. Eventually, Sara joined her and the two looked around the coroner's office. There were bodies on the slabs, that had just been sewed up. Suddenly a man appeared, he was a little taller than Laurel herself and had jet black hair, his brown eyes almost looked entirely black as well. This was the Black Hand's leader, Derek Hand.

"Dinah Laurel Lance, so I finally meet my bird of prey to face to face," Derek said smugly, then looked at Sara. "Oh, and I see you brought your sister. It's Sara, right?" He asked.

"Yeah, and you're the guy playing Frankenstein I assume?" Sara asked.

He began chuckling a little. "Sorry, I have so many names to keep up in my head. But I have been looking forward to meeting you for some time Sara. Ever since your mother told me about how Laurel brought you back from the dead, well, considering that's my business I'm curious about the method." Hand explained.

"My mother?" Sara wondered confusingly.

Wanting to interrupt him, Laurel spoke up. "What do you want in Gotham, Hand." She asked.

"Same thing that I wanted in Paris, Tokyo, New York, and more. To expand my operation, only Gotham is a bit more ambitious. What better home for the dead than a dead city?" Hand said.

"Well, feel free to join them," Sara said, as she let a knife come from under her coat and threw it at Hand, who barely managed to dodge it. All a sudden, Hand got to one of the corpses on the slab and place his hand on it. A black substance appeared on the corpse's flesh and seemed to be moving through his veins, suddenly it woke and stood on its own two feet. Hand quickly moved to the other slab and reanimated the other corpse as well.

"Kill them," Hand ordered and the corpses attack the Canary sisters. However, both Laurel and Sara could handle a single corpse individual on their own. However, Hand to a control panel on the wall and put in a security code. Suddenly, throughout Arkham, the patient's doors began opening and they began exiting their rooms. Oliver, John, Sherloque, and Caitlin still inside Arkham noticed this as the patients quickly began a chaotic spree.

"What the hell did he just do?" Laurel asked fighting off the reanimated corpse.

"Bought himself some time," Sara started doing the same.

Outside of Arkham, Barry and Ralph could hear the alarms from the Arkham Asylum. "What's happening?" Ralph asked out loud.

"Trouble," Barry stated and used his Flash Ring to get into his Flash suit. He then speeded into the asylum to help and figure out what was going wrong.

Oliver and John were fighting off patients near the staircase, Oliver reached for his ear comm. "Laurel, Sara, what's happening?" He shouted.

Sara and Laurel dealt with the corpses Hand had reanimated but were now dealing with patients of their own. "It's Hand, Ollie! He's here, the crazy bastard let all the other crazy bastards out of their cages, so he could get away." Laurel said to Oliver over comms, fighting of the patients.

"Alright, everyone get the patients back in their rooms and find Hand!" Oliver told everyone on comms, before taking a nightstick from one of the patients and began attacking them with it.

A patient named Roger Hayden beating one of the security guards forms a crazed look on his face. "Finally, the inmates are running the asylum." He shouted during the chaotic ruckus and then put his mask on.

Down in the asylum's basement, a woman named Nora Fries was frantically searching the basement's inventory. "Fries, Fries, Fries, Fries, come on!" Yelled getting agitated. "Where is it?" She shouted.

Caitlin caught a glimpse of Nora in the basement. "Are you okay?" She asked.

"My cryostasis shut off when the locks did. I … I need to be cold. 196 below, 196 he said." Nora said frantically. Eventually, Nora came across the item she was searching for; a huge gun. "How does this thing work? She said, then the lights activated on the gun. "Okay." She said.

"Maybe you should take a step back," Caitlin said slowly approaching Nora.

Panicking Nora simply fired the gun and it emitted a cryogenic blast at Caitlin after she shouted. "Just get away from me!"

"Oh." Caitlin moaned in pain trying to get on her feet before turning into Killer Frost. "You cold bitch." Killer Frost said in cold fury.

"Unh! Aah! Agh!" Various inmates of Arkham said as Barry put each of them back in their cells. As Barry met up with Oliver and John, Barry stated. "No sign of Hand!" He said disappointingly.

On comms, Ralph called Barry, as there were more inmates coming out of the crazy house. "Flash, I could use some help," Ralph said and Barry then showed up, one by one he put them all back in cells and then stopped to talk to Ralph. "Nicely done." He said, Ralph then noticed that two prisoners getting into a van. "I think you missed one or two, buddy." He stated.

"Floor It!" Hayden yelled at his driver. Suddenly, Hayden heard a big sound on the roof of the van and suddenly his driver was pulled out from the window right through the glass. Hayden got out of the van and began running away, however, Batwoman fired her grappling gun at him and pulled it back causing him to slam on the ground. The driver was attempting to get away, but she threw a Batarang at his head knocking him out and it then returned to her hand.

"Who is this badass?" Ralph openly exclaimed, as Batwoman then jumped off the van.

"That's not Batman," Barry said stating the obvious.

"Since I know your BFFs with the Green Arrow and he's in town, tell him that Kate Kane told you to get out of Gotham," Batwoman said referring to herself as she told the Flash. "And, that you should have listened to her." She said giving him a sharp look.

Back in the basement, Nora Fries was still giving Killer Frost trouble because she was trying not to hurt her. "Guys, I could use a little backup." She asked over comms.

Sara and Laurel finished with the patients. "On it." The sisters said simultaneously. Laurel and Sara ran to Caitlin's location and saw her avoid the blast of the woman shooting at her. Eventually, the cryogenic blast hit a huge shelf and it fell on Killer Frost knocking her out. The boxes on shelves that fell on the ground contained chemical vials with the label J. Crane on it; the chemicals became exposed to the air and emitting smoke.

"Caitlin," Sara said checking on her and notice the woman got away.

"Is she going to be alright," Laurel asked but then suddenly Sara was flicked to the other side of the room by an invisible force.

"Sara!" Laurel screamed.

"Oh, I would be less worried about your sister and more worried about yourself." A familiar voice said to Laurel and sent a chill of fear down her spine, turning she saw the man who had put her in her current situation; her own murderer, Damien Darhk. "Hello, Laurel did you miss me." He said with a malefic grin.


	12. Chapter 12 - Fear Toxin

Arkham Asylum

Sara still checking Caitlin's condition was then attacked by a familiar face, Damien Darhk. "You son of a bitch!" Sara said. As Darhk then threw Laurel across the room with his telekinetic powers.

"Really, is that how you greet your nemesis?" Darhk said in his typical smug humor. Sara charged after Darhk and began to fight him, but the two were evenly matched. Eventually, Darhk delivered a side kick right into Sara's chest and proceed to taunt her. "You must be so overjoyed, having your sister back but you're not are you? And, it's not because Laurel lied to you about being alive this whole time, no it's about how she's alive and you weren't the one to bring her back!" He stated to Sara who began to become increasing distressful.

Laurel was pushed back by Darhk, knowing his magic gave him the advantage during this fight, Laurel turned off the power dampener on her wrist; all she needed was to buy some time for enough sound to be generated during their fight and she could take his ass down. Charging at him to fight once more, Darhk was taunting her again. "Tell me something Laurel do you ever wonder if your current situation is some kind of karmic punishment for you?" Darhk said, punching Laurel in the stomach then kneed her in the face. "You brought your sister back from the dead, despite Oliver's warnings, despite Nyssa's warnings, hell despite Malcolm Merlyn's warnings. In your arrogance you brought her back, defying the natural laws of life and death. Now, here you are fighting against an organization that does the same thing, who are you to condemn them?" He said, punching her in the face.

Sara found her herself struggling even further against Darhk, the blows from his strikes were much stronger now; he was using magic to enhance his strength she thought. Breaking her defense, Darhk punched her in the face first on the right side then the left side, as he did so he spoke. "You could have brought Laurel back whenever you wanted when you had the Spear or any other day on that Time Ship of yours! You can tell yourself you were protecting the timeline, but the truth is deep down you didn't want her back, did you? Because in the end, you didn't love her enough to bring her back as she did for you." He said then threw her into a pile of boxes.

Darhk got up from the pile of boxes that Laurel threw him into. "All your secrets, all your lies these last two years. Don't even come close to the biggest secret of them all." Darhk said, as he then pulled a knife and threw it at Laurel who dodged it, then charged at her knives in both hands. Laurel managed to disarm one of them but the other went into her hip, she quickly pulled it out and threw to the side as Darhk repeatedly hit the open wound causing her to hit the ground. "You didn't lie to your family to protect them or even because you were ashamed of what you did when the Black Hand brought you back. No, you liked being free from your family. From the cheating ex-boyfriend who would never love you again, from the sister who was never there for you and your father when you really needed her, and speaking of dear old dad; I know you loved him but face it he was always a drunk struggling to stay afloat, a ball in chain dragging you down. You stayed away from them because you wanted to fly free didn't you, Black Canary?" He said to torment her as she got up from her knees and delivered him an uppercut with as much speed and power she could muster.

Knocked on her back, Darhk got on top of Sara and began to ground an pound her. "Always second when came to Laurel right? The good one, the strong one, the beautiful one, and the popular one. You on the other hand; a screwup, a troublemaker, a slut, a killer, you'd always be second her. But with her gone, you could finally step out of her shadow, have the light shine on you for a change. Only it seems like every time you save the world you just end up creating another mess that you need to clean up." He said, then began choking her. "And, let's not forget daddy shall we. How often did you check up on him, not nearly enough? You have a time machine; you could have visited him any day but you didn't just like you didn't bother to tell your family you were alive the first time they thought you were dead! You judge Laurel for not being there for him but you were never there for him at all, when it comes to taking care of the people you love your pathetic compared to Laurel!" He said as Sara used her hands to break the choke and kicked him off her.

"You wanted to be more like Sara; irresponsible, free, no attachments, no commitments and what did that get you huh? Sure, doing whatever you want feels great, trust me I would know, but doesn't really get you anywhere or rather it didn't get you anywhere did it. All it really gave you was a death on your conscious if Sara hates you now just wait till she finds out your secret. That is if she ever finds out, you gonna keep this from her like you kept her death a secret from your father? He taunted her, causing her to become increasingly fearful as she was attacked by him.

"You're a selfish bitch!" Darhk said as he hit Sara.

"You're a lying bitch!" Darhk said as he hit Laurel.

"Pathetic!" The hallucination of Darhk told both Laurel and Sara.

Kate was there noticing both the sisters fighting each other, she guessed that the family reunion Laurel had secretly wanted didn't go as planned. Deciding to end this, Kate ran into the middle of Laurel and her sister's fight; jumping in the air she hit Laurel with a kick to the face and Sara with a punch in the face simultaneously. As they were knocked to the floor, Kate reached for her holster and pull out her gun. She then shot Laurel with a powerful sedative dart from her gun, then did the same with Sara. The two passed out immediately. Kate then noticed the floor and saw the broken vials, picking one up she then realized what exactly happened; the Lance sisters were exposed to Fear Toxin.

Kate then noticed another woman coming too, she saw a resemblance to that doctor that Laurel showed her the previous night; only her eyes were glowing, and she had snow-white hair. Killer Frost saw the woman dress like a bat right in front of her and saw her holding a gun. "Uh, could have sworn I'd heard that Batman doesn't use guns." She sneered.

"No, but I do!" Batwoman said as he holstered her gun. Suddenly, the Flash came in with the stretchy dude and Queen. Oliver rushed over to Laurel and Sara when he noticed they were out cold.

"What the hell happened?" Oliver asked out loud.

"Your friends were exposed to a powerful hallucinogen," Batwoman explained as Oliver took a long look at her.

"How do you know this? Who are you?" Oliver asked her as he approaches this Batwoman?

"Laurel's contact in Gotham and the only one can save her," Kate explained, she then looked at the Flash. "Get us to the safe house, there are supplies there that can help them both." She said Barry following orders got everyone to Laurel's safe house one at a time. As he laid Laurel and Sara down on a table in the room, he noticed that Cisco and Ava were back.

"Oh my god, Sara!" Ava said rushing to her side. "What happened." She asked.

"And, who's the Rose Top?" Cisco asked as Batwoman walked pass Cisco to the fridge that was full of medical equipment, grabbing a few vials from the fridge she then used them to make a medical cocktail after that she filled the syringes with the cocktail.

"What's exactly in that?" Caitlin asked as a medical professional.

"I take it you've heard of Vertigo, right, makes people see their worst fears?" Batwoman asked looking at Oliver.

"Yeah, why is that what they were exposed too?" Oliver responded.

"Vertigo is off shot of this hallucinogen; it was created by a psychiatrist who had a psychotic obsession with fear. This cocktail should counteract most of the variants that he has created." Batwoman explained to Oliver preparing to inject the sisters.

"How many variations are there?" Flash asked.

"Over a hundred," Batwoman replied, holding the syringes in front of the sisters. "It's their best chance." She said, then injected them each with a serum. "Now we wait." She said solemnly.

Undisclosed Location

Derek Hand had arrived at one of his "workshops" in Gotham. He was agitated, Laurel Lance knew who he was now and what he looked like. Additionally, she had the aid of the Green Arrow and the Flash working with her know. She knew his operation; his operation was endangered. Everything that he spent the last four years building since Central City was endangered. Suddenly, Clariss had arrived back to full strength after his defeat against the Flash.

"Is it done?" Hand asked his speedster employee.

"Yeah, how did you figure this out by about this but the way?" Clariss asked.

"Since Queen's admission to be the Green Arrow details of his activities have become a matter of public record; finding some of them was easy. As for the others, well, it's always useful to have a few dozen elite private investigators that you resurrected." Hand explained.

"Mr. Hand, I hate to bother you but we're running a little low on our inventory. Would you mind?" A scientist asked of hand.

"Give me a moment," Hand said leaving Clariss. He walked over to one of the corpses and placed his hand on them, a scientist stood by with a syringe. As Hand's powers activated the doctor inserted the needle in the corpse and withdrew the black substance that Hand was creating. Walking away from the corpse, Hand went to the center of the lab.

"Attention everyone, attention!" Hand shouted. "Our operation in Gotham is endangered, now more than ever it seems our little Bird of Prey has brought some friends of hers to shut us down. But we're not going to let them our we?" He asked out loud.

"No!" Everyone in the building said at once.

"That's right! Because Manus in Nigrim is more than an organization. We can give the dead a second chance at life, we can reunite them with their loved ones, and we can allow them to live and fulfill their desires that they could not with their second life. And all we ask in return is for them to help us in our endeavors to give others the same opportunity, to attain secrets they would take to their graves, and preserve the skills and talents that they would have lost in life. We are a new way of life!" Hand spoke out loud and everyone cheered.

Laurel Lance's Safe House

Sara woke up, she felt groggy and sluggish; as if she had the worst hangover of her life, which for her is saying something. Ava was right next to her and so was Laurel also unconscious.

"Sara, hey take it easy," Ava said helping Sara up.

"What ... What happened? Where's ... where's Darhk?" Sara asked.

"Damien Darhk? That's who you saw?" Ava asked.

"Saw?" Sara asked confused.

Batwoman approached Sara to explain her situation. "You were exposed to Fear Toxin, a powerful hallucinogen, whatever you saw was only in your head." She told her.

"Ava, am I ... still hallucinating, cause I swear I'm seeing a hot chick in a ... bat costume." Sara asked bewildered and confused while Ava just looked relieved and a little jealous, while Kate just smirked. Sara turned over to look at Laurel, worried for her sister and realized that she wasn't fighting Darhk but Laurel herself.

"What's wrong with Laurel is she going to be okay?" Sara asked.

"Like with all substances, some people have stronger reactions to it than others take my word for it. Whatever Laurel's going through right now it's pretty much the worst nightmare she'll ever have." Batwoman explained as worryingly looked over her friend. "As for her external wounds, they'll heal up soon after this." She said as she put headphones on Laurel's ears and put on Laurel's favorite playlist on max volume, starting with David Cassidy's "I think I love you"; the sound of the music would stimulate her powers and help speed up Laurel's healing process.

* * *

**I struggled between choosing who the Lance sisters would see in their hallucination Darhk or themselves; as I believe if Sara was exposed to something like a fear toxin she would she herself as her deepest fear is that she is a monster. Ultimately, I choose Darhk because for season 2 and 3 of Legends, he was Sara's personal enemy and could best taunt her with her fears; like Adrian did for Oliver during his Vertigo trip. I also chose Darhk, because Laurel was killed by him and that had to leave some scars on her there to explore. **

**As for the things that I wrote for Darhk to say to Laurel and Sara, I put myself in their heads and thought of the of worst things I could think about myself if I was them; it wasn't easy. **

**I also retconned the Vertigo drug as a variant of Fear Toxin that got to Star City, which fits since it basically is that in Arrow.**

**David Cassidy was Katie Cassidy's real-life father and "I think I love you" was a song that Katie herself also recorded her own version of.  
**

**But sure to read the next chapter, Laurel's biggest secret will be revealed.**


	13. Chapter 13 - Painful Rebirth

_Central City, 2016, Flashback_

_Dinah Lance had arrived at her home in Central City, she had just returned from her daughter Laurel's funeral. She wanted to believe that it was a lie or that Laurel would somehow turn up alive, like her youngest daughter Sara did as well. But she knew she wouldn't, her ex-husband, Quentin reassured her. What upset her, even more, was that Laurel was a vigilante, a hero known as the Black Canary. Dinah didn't know what to believe. She always knew her daughter was driven to help others; it was what made her want to become a lawyer. But going out every night and beating criminals up just didn't seem anything like the daughter she knew would do. But then again had Dinah ever really known the kind of woman her daughter was the last few years._

_It was her fault for that anyway. After the incident with Gambit, Dinah left her family partly it was because of her ex-husband's drinking and obsession with his police work but mostly it was out of guilt for letting Sara continue her affair with Oliver, while he was dating Laurel. While she didn't like leaving Quentin, she knew it was the right thing to do for herself but leaving Laurel, abandoning her only living daughter at the time. No matter how she tried to play it in her head she knew it was wrong, that she had left her daughter alone during a time when she was in so much pain and anger instead helping her get through it as a mother should. But she didn't._

_It didn't matter in the end because of Laurel … her Laurel had managed to pull herself up all by herself. Sure, she stumbled and fell onto alcoholism like Quentin, but she got through it much better than he did. Despite her pain and anger, her daughter rose up to graduate law school on her own, become a lawyer who aided the defenseless and prosecuted the guilty, and then finally a superhero willing to risk her life for others; which she ultimately did. Laurel had even managed to break the rules of life and death to bring Sara herself back from the dead, despite everything that happened between them, Laurel did that. Dinah sat on her desk and took one last long thought about her daughter; her beautiful, courageous, and loving daughter who cared more about others than herself._

_Tears filled her eyes and she began sobbing, thinking about all the pain Laurel went through and how unjust it was. She couldn't stand it, grabbing her laptop she began researching everything she could about "resurrection" or "bringing someone back to life". Dinah had found so much useless junk, but she knew that bringing someone back from the dead was possible as Laurel did it for Sara; Dinah would be damned if there wasn't another way and she would do it for her. Dinah tried searching Judeo-Christian topics but nothing. Dinah still had many contacts that she could use when she was trying to find out if Sara was still alive._

_Almost 3 months had passed since Laurel's funeral and even the death of her daughter's murderer, Damien Darhk, did nothing to change Dinah's mind; she was going to bring Laurel back no matter what. Because if living in Central City taught her anything, nothing is impossible not metahumans, speedsters, or resurrection; there was a way to bring her baby girl back and she would find it. Finally, an old contact of hers gave her something new: Manus in Nigrum, Latin for the Black Hand. Eventually, Dinah met with the liaison contact for the Black Hand in Bludhaven. She had been waiting in an abandon car lot for an hour, just as she was beginning to think he would never show up; he appeared in front of her._

_"Dinah Richards?" The man addressed her by her maiden name._

_"Dinah Lance actually, I still keep my married name." Dinah corrected him._

_"Apologies, what can I help with Miss Lance?" He asked._

_"First I need to know if you're really who you say you are. Who was my father, what did I cure, and why was I punished for it?" Dinah asked._

_"My father was Apollo, I found the cure for death itself, and Zeus killed me as punishment as he was afraid that I teach it to humans and steal his brother's followers. I am Asclepius." He answered as he introduced himself._

_"Of course, you're not the actually Greek god of medicine; are you?" Dinah asked._

_"No but I do have the cure for death," Asclepius said._

_"Show it to me," Dinah asked_

_"I can't simply just do that Miss Lance," Asclepius told her._

_"And, I can't simply give someone my money without legitimate proof that it works!" Dinah replied._

_Pausing for a moment, Asclepius considered what to do with Dinah, but he understood she needed to know that was not a con artist's scam. "Very well, there is a pet store just several blocks from here. Go buy a cat or dog; I'll wait here." He said as he ordered her to leave._

_Dinah left the parking lot and eventually found the pet store he referred to, she found and bought a mutt that she thought was adorable. Eventually, she returned to the parking lot in which she handed him the dog she bought._

_"Cute little thing," Asclepius said as he began petting the dog, he then pulled out a knife that caused Dinah to startle back and she gasped once he stabbed the dog in its torso and let it fall to the ground dead._

_"Oh my God!" Dinah screamed as she tried not to yell. "What … what … why … why did you do that?" She asked._

_"You said you wanted proof, check it's a pulse," Asclepius ordered. Dinah reluctantly moved towards the poor animal, thinking she knew what he was planning; the creature was dead, no pulse whatsoever._

_"Move aside," Asclepius asked her, he then pulled out a syringe filled with a black substance and then inserted it into the dog. He then got up and stood back afterward Dinah became frightened after she saw that dog get up on its own two feet and walked over to her to lick her hands. "Satisfied?" He asked as Dinah stared at him in awe._

_1 hour later at a nearby bar_

_"The substance that I injected the dog with reanimates dead tissue, however, the side effect is that the element that is used needs replenishment," Asclepius says, then pulls out a prescription bottle. "These pills manage to replenish the chemical substance once it's in the subject's system. Allowing their vitals and organs to function normally but without taking the pills daily the subject will be dead again." He finished._

_"So basically, a lifetime of medication for someone suffering from the likes of depression, high blood pressure, or lupus." Dinah summarized._

_"Essentially yes," Asclepius answered as he began noticing Dinah's worried expression. "Second thoughts?" He asked it was only natural to be hesitant about something like this he knew from experience._

_"No … it's just, I live in a city with a speedster, telepathic gorillas, and now I found out that all it will take to bring my daughter back to me, is a single injection and lifetime of pills." Dinah exclaimed. "What will she do for your organization once she comes back?" She asked._

_"As you know we only bring people in as our "clients" if they have a substantial income or in your daughter's case a useful position. Given how she was a skilled and successful lawyer, as well as a vigilante to Star City; she'll be an asset to our cause." Asclepius said._

_"I don't want her endangered anymore after this do you understand me." Dinah raised her voiced before Asclepius calmed her down. "My daughter … my Laurel, if people would ask me what her biggest fault is … was, I would have said she's can't handle the bottle or her stubbornness. But since her funeral, I realized that her biggest fault was that she cared more about others than herself. She almost always put the needs of others before her own, it's … just one of the many things that made her such an amazing person." She said as tears were running down her face._

_"I understand Miss Lance," Asclepius said._

_"No, you don't! You couldn't really understand how wonderful she was … I didn't. I wasn't there for her … so many times I wasn't there for her when I should have been. When this happens, I want her to be safe, to be happy, and to have as normal a life as she can; I won't bring back from the dead just so she can die again." Dinah tearfully pleaded._

_"I understand completely Miss Lance," Asclepius replied._

_Coast City, 2016_

_Dinah had arrived in Coast City in the summer, last night she and several members of Manus in Nigrum's helped her dug up Laurel's coffin. They left another coffin in the grave and made sure the burial site looked undisturbed. Dinah thought about telling Quentin or Sara about this, but she didn't, mostly because she didn't want either of them to get their hopes up but also because this was something, she needed to do for Laurel personally. As it became night, Dinah entered the lab with several dozen scientists working around her._

_Eventually, Laurel's coffin was placed on the ground and they opened the coffin and Dinah gazed at the corpse that was once her beautiful daughter; her skin which at times seemed to be kissed by the sun was now deathly pale, her lips blue, and she was so thin as her body was starting to decompose. The scientists placed Laurel on the slab and then insert a needle into her arm afterward the bag she was connected to with the same substance that Dinah saw earlier going into the dog she bough. The black substance spread throughout her daughter's veins reaching all the way to her face until eventually, Laurel awoke. She gasped and rose up, scared and confused._

_Rushing over to her baby girl, Dinah placed her hands on her overjoyed. "Laurel, Laurel, baby, it's okay, it's okay, you're okay." She said with a smile._

_Laurel stared blankly at her mother and struggled to speak. "Ma … Ma … Mom?" She said._

_"Yes, yes, baby it's me," Dinah said tearfully._

_"How … how?" Laurel confusingly asked._

_Dinah took Laurel to another room, she sat her down and explained everything to her. She told her about Manus in Nigrum and how they brought her back to life, there were also some things Dinah had to explain a couple of things that happened after her death, including Oliver admitting that she was the Black Canary and that the Green Arrow had killed Damien Darhk; both women found some comfort in that monster's death._

_"That's … That's a lot to take in." Laurel exclaimed holding a blanket around her._

_"Tell me about it," Dinah said as she held Laurel's feeling her returned warmth._

_"I don't really know what to say now, Mom," Laurel stated._

_"I do," Dinah said as Laurel looked at her. "Why, why didn't you tell me you were … a superhero?" She asked._

_"I don't know. I'd say it was to protect you, but the truth is … ever since you left Dad … left me all those years ago, there's always been this gap between us. A gap that makes me only want to see every once in a while, like on birthdays or holidays. I thought it change in time, but it didn't." Laurel reluctantly admitted. "I'm sorry, Mom." She said_

_"No, no, don't … don't be sorry, I abandoned you. When you do that to your own child you can't blame them for never being able to fully trust you again." Dinah said placing a hand on Laurel's cheek. "It's why I did this. After you managed to bring Sara back, I knew I had to bring you back … because you deserved it, because you needed to know that even though you had a mother … that disappointed you and hurt you, that I ... I loved you enough to bring you back. That you have a mother who loved enough to give you a second chance at life … because deserved it more than anyone." She said tears falling down her face. Laurel also too started to cry but also smiled at Dinah._

_Asclepius almost felt guilty interrupting the mother-daughter reunion, however, business was business he thought as he entered the room. "Miss Lance, the younger I mean, how are you?" He asked._

_"Fine, I guess I don't really have any notes to compare to with being resurrected," Laurel told him._

_"But, that's not exactly true is it?" Asclepius asked._

_"What do you mean?" Laurel asked._

_"Your mother here made us aware that you managed to figure out a method to bring your sister back from the dead, would you mind telling us how you managed to accomplish that?" He asked her._

_"Why do you ask?" Laurel wondered._

_"It's in the best interests of our founder and CEO." He replied._

_"Well, I'm sorry to tell you it's not for me to divulge," Laurel admitted not fully trusting the man._

_"Well, I'm sorry you feel that way," Asclepius said as he began texting on his phone. "However, in case your mother failed to mention it to you since our 'organization brought you back it essentially makes you our property." He explained._

_"The hell it does!" Laurel yelled as she stood up._

_"I understand your reservations, Miss Lance, I had them too when I first came back, but working for us has many benefits if you want we have numerous armed forces that you can join out in the field, undead soldiers have a lot of benefits. Or you can lead up our legal division, you certainly have the qualifications for that too." Asclepius replied._

_"Thanks, but no thanks," Laurel replied._

_"Well that's unfortunate," Asclepius said._

_"Mom, let's go," Laurel said but suddenly stopped and then developed a blank expression on her face, afterward she reached for a nearby scalpel and slowly moved towards Dinah who began looking terrified._

_"Laurel?" Dinah said as she slowly started to pull back feeling afraid of her daughter. "Laurel, stop your scaring me!" She yelled but Laurel didn't have any reaction as Dinah backed against the wall of the room, the last she felt was the scalpel being plunged into her heart. Suddenly as if coming out of a trance, Laurel awoke and saw the scalpel in her hand stuck in her mother's chest; and blood, her mother's blood on Laurel's hands. Shocked and horrified at what she had done, Laurel stepped back before falling on her knees and holding her mother._

_"Mom! MOM! No, No, No Mom!" Laurel said as she began sobbing uncontrollably. "What did I ... why did I?" She hysterically asked._

_"Our founder and CEO is the source of how we come back to life, he also can also "motivate" us to do things when we can't do or when we get out of line," Asclepius said smugly._

_"Motivate, you mean control. This ... all of this, it's about control it's not about helping people at all." Laurel cried._

_"Can't it be both." He replied as if he wasn't bothered by Laurel's situation. "Life is so brief and often disappointing, now because of us everyone can live to our fullest potential." He said._

_Reaching the scalpel in her mother's heart, rage coursing through her mind; Laurel leaped at Asclepius and placed the weapon right at his throat, however, he didn't seem all concern._

_"You really think this going to do anything? You won't even nick me." Asclepius taunted Laurel who then stabbed him in the chest much to his surprise, and continued to do so until he spoke up again. "I don't understand, you shouldn't be able to do this; he would never allow you to do this." He said as starting choking on his own blood, before finally being stabbed in the head._

_"No one makes me do anything, not anymore," Laurel exclaimed, at one point in time she would have been horrified by killing someone like this but she wasn't. Not just because of what this Black Hand group made her do but because he was already dead, just like herself she supposed or rather she wished she was dead. Laurel got up and walked over to her mother, she held her body in her arms and began sobbing. She wished she was dead again, she'd rather be dead than live with this guilt._

Laurel's Safehouse

Laurel began opening her eyes, she could tell she was back at her safe house. She looked over and saw Sara watching over her.

"Sara?" Laurel mumbled

"Laurel! Hey, um, you ... we ... we were exposed to something, something bad." Sara said but noticed Laurel's was starting to cry just looking at her. "Laurel?" She asked

"I killed her, Sara. I ... I killed mom." Laurel tearfully admitted.

* * *

**Author's notes: For Laurel to pretend to stay dead to her friends and family, she had to go through something truly traumatic for her base these decisions on and being forced to kill your own mother even if you had a strained relationship with is certainly one good reason. Plus, I've seen throughout the show that all the members of the Lance family leave everyone behind to deal with their pain in some way or another. Laurel, Quentin, Dinah, and Sara; all of them more than once.**

**As for my decision to kill Dinah, the character has always been rather negative and even at times non-existent to her family. For her to go through something like this not only shows that she shared similar traits to Laurel when she revived Sara but to also give her a kind of redemption to her character and her decision, I felt it would be a fitting end. **


	14. Chapter 14 - Storming the Castle

Arkham Asylum

A dimensional breach opened, in Arkham Asylum, in the medical room where Laurel and Sara had encountered Derek Hand. From the breach, Batwoman, Green Arrow, Elongated Man, and Vibe appeared out of the breach.

"Well, that was … interesting." Batwoman said referring to passing through the breach.

"This is were Sara said Hand was," Oliver said.

"Do your thing Cisco," Ralph said.

Going to the autopsy table, Cisco triggered a Vibe as he saw Laurel and Sara confronting Hand and who he escaped. Focusing on him further, Cisco tried to figure out where Hand was heading after he escaped. Eventually, Cisco saw the location where Hand went and lucky for him, he found the name of the area where the building that Hand went to was at; judging from its appearance it looked like it was a clinic.

Turning to Batwoman, Cisco asked. "You wouldn't happen to know where an abandoned clinic in Burnside is would you?" He asked.

"It's most likely the Martha Wayne Children's Clinic, it was one of the first buildings that closed down after the fall of Wayne Enterprises," Batwoman explained.

"Well let's go after them then," Ralph exclaimed.

"Not the best idea, Laurel and I have been after these guys for months and every time we got in, we found that they were armed to the teeth," Batwoman recalled.

"So, what's our plan, Oliver?" Cisco asked.

"We need to …" Oliver starting to answer before Batwoman interrupted him.

"Regroup, then we storm the place. Leave nothing to chance." She said before Oliver gave her a look. "Oh, I'm sorry is this your city or mine?" She asked making sure he knew who was in charge of this city.

"Yours," Oliver stated annoyed even though he knew he would act the same as her if the roles were reversed.

"Then let's get moving Robin Hood," Batwoman said.

"Haven't heard that one before," Oliver replied.

Laurel's Safehouse

Laurel and Sara just sat together for several moments, not only because they were still groggy from the effects of the fear toxin but because Laurel just confessed to killing their mother. The words had just come out of Laurel like a busted dam, how their mother found the Black Hand after Laurel's death and brought her back from the dead. How, after they wanted Laurel to join and learn everything they could about the Lazarus Pit that Laurel used to bring Sara herself back. The hardest part for Laurel was explaining how she killed their mother, while it was true that Laurel could not be controlled now by Derek Hand's powers this was not always the case as he could control her briefly and had used her to kill their mother just to make an example out of her. Sara just sat there in shock, trying to absorb all the new information she just found out.

"I … I … talked to mom, after dad died." Sara said with tears and confusion.

"That … that was me. I did the same thing to dad when you died. It's also how I found out about my lookalike in Central City, by calling dad … as mom. The worst thing I ever did, I swore I would never do it again, but I did." Laurel said her voice filled with shame and disgust at her actions. "I kept her death a secret from you … from dad … because if either you found out, you might look into the Black Hand and they come after you or use you both to get to me."

"Guess because I was a time-traveler, they could never pin me down and dad … being in office, he was too public for them to go after them." Sara realized and the two sisters fell silent for a moment.

"Go ahead, say it," Laurel said.

"Say what?" Sara asked.

"That you hate me. I deserve it. Keeping that I was alive a secret from you and dad. Mom, especially mom, for … for killing her and …" Laurel said as she was sobbing but was interrupted by Sara.

"Laurel stop!" Sara said in high pitch voice. "I don't hate you. Have I been pissed at you absolutely, but … but I get now, especially now." She said placing a hand on Laurel's cheek. "I know what's like to do something … to do things that are so horrible that they feel unforgivable. Things that you are just so ashamed of the only way to deal with it is put as much distance between yourself and the source of that grief."

"Only … only you find that it doesn't work very well, and you find yourself making even more mistakes than you already have. After, what I did to … mom; I couldn't face you or dad, I couldn't look either of you in the eye without knowing that I took her away from both of you." Laurel tearfully replied.

"From what you told me it wasn't your fault, they made do it," Sara said.

"But I was the one with the weapon in her heart … her blood literally on my hands. But more than that, if I hadn't told her about the Pit, about how I brought you back to life … she'd … she would never …" Laurel hysterically cried as Sara interrupted her once more.

"And even if she didn't, I would have. I think … I think that's what I so angry about because in the end you brought me back to life and I didn't do the same for you." Sara tearfully admitted. "Especially when I had the perfect chance once upon a time, but I thought saving the world and protecting time was more important than having my big sister back. I'm sorry, Laurel." She said.

"Not as sorry as I am, sis?" Laurel said as the sisters hugged each other. Oliver then entered the room, he almost hated himself for interrupting the two, but their window of opportunity was closing to end the Black Hand, he then knocked on the wall.

"Uh, guys, sorry to interrupt but we found Hand's HQ," Oliver said, as Sara and Laurel passed him.

"How much did you hear of that?" Laurel asked.

"Enough," Oliver said quietly in earshot.

Batwoman brought up the schematic of the abandoned clinic, the group summarized that the Headquarters were most likely below ground. A drone that Batwoman had sent early confirmed this and it also discovered the entry and exit points in the building.

"There are 5 exit/entrance points, we need at least two people covering each point," Batwoman said.

"Leave it me, I can cover all five those points," Flash said.

"At once?" Batwoman asked.

"Close enough," Flash replied.

"What should we expect once we get inside?" John asked.

"Anything from armed soldiers to mad scientists, each with enhanced strength and a ridiculously high pain threshold," Laurel responded.

"Which is why I purpose we have Frosty here, slow them down," Batwoman said referring and looking towards Caitlin.

"Me!" Caitlin asked.

"Nice GOFO doctor, yes you. These bastards are reanimated corpses and Laurel and I have learned that they can't handle the cold very well. If you can bring the room down to sub-zero levels it won't matter who or what they've got in there once you hawk it up.

"GOFO, Hawk, you military?" John asked and Batwoman just smirked.

"The only problem with this plan is that most of us can't handle sub-zero temperatures." Oliver reminded everyone.

"I'm sure if she's like Batman she's got it covered," Cisco said.

"For the last time, Batman is not real! Batwoman sure but Batman." Oliver exclaimed.

"Ollie, Batman's real, I know." Laurel insisted.

"How?" Oliver asked.

"Because I've seen him, I've met him, I've even slept with him," Laurel said out loud although she realized she got carried away with the last part and immediately wished she could take it back; especially when everyone looked at surprisingly.

"You've slept with … Batman?" Flash asked surprised and a little glad that he knew for certain Batman wasn't just an urban myth.

"When was this?" Sara asked in an amused manner with a look that screamed sexual curiosity.

"We worked a case together that led me to Gotham while you and Felicity were traveling, one thing to another and well … listen, can we please get back on subject and not my questionable choices in men!" Laurel said embarrassed.

"What I was about to say before we all got off-topic, are these," Batwoman said as she showed everyone a what appeared to be a bulletproof vest. "Got them in stock a few weeks ago, Kevlar with a Carbon Fiber layer for extra protection. But also, has built-in material to hold in body heat, should do the trick if we are going into a freezer. Let's move out."

As everyone was heading out, Laurel and Sara fell behind. "So, what was it like having sex with a guy who dresses like a bat?" Sara asked Laurel.

After a small chuckle. "Honestly it was pretty awesome, the kissing was kinda weird though," Laurel admitted.

"How so?" Sara asked.

"It was kind of like what I imagine kissing a vampire would be like, great technique but cold lips," Laurel explained.

"Huh, you know I never really got into the whole vampire phenomena," Sara admitted.

"Yeah, I never saw the appeal of it either." Laurel agreed.

Black Hand HQ underneath Burnside Clinic

Inside of the Black Hand HQ, various scientists are working, and several soldiers are preparing by arming themselves with guns and body armor. Suddenly the lights of the room turn off, causing the soldiers to become alarmed.

"What happened to the lights?" One of the scientists said. Suddenly, several people began noticing their breath in the air; as the temperature in the room was getting much colder. Suddenly, one after another the scientists were knocked out by icicle shards that hit them.

"We've got hostiles." One of the soldiers said but was shot by an arrow, then the other two were tackled and quickly down by a green-hooded figure. Several soldiers noticed a figure moving across on the top floor, with only a flicker of red hair seen as the shroud took down several enemies one after another. The soldiers were then surprised when the Elongated Man had stretched and wrapped himself the soldiers before knocking them out with punches to their faces. The Lance sisters blitzed their enemies, using her bo-staff, Sara made quick work of her enemies.

"These vests must be doing the trick, makes me wish I had it when I trained in the Himalayas," Sara said then split her batons taking on two other soldiers.

Courting her opponents' like a boxer, Laurel managed to get a word in once finished the last one like with Muay Thai kick. "Didn't know you trained in the Himalayas." She asked. Ava and Dinah came in guns blazing, making short work of the scientists, however, once the soldiers came within firing distance; Dinah unleashed her Sonic Cry to knock them down.

John sitting on the rooftop watching the rooftop from a sniper's scope while he could Barry trail of yellow lightning move from one exit point to another. Hearing the gunfire on his comms, John could tell the assault was going down as planned. "Everything alright in there." He asked.

"Yep!" Oliver responded over coms, as he fired an explosive arrow on the ground that knocked back several men. Taking an arrow from his quiver, then stabbed each man in vital points needed for them to move their anatomy. Oliver then caught a glimpse of Laurel and Sara fighting; Sara was as efficient as ever and Laurel had improved tremendously. Despite her hard work, efforts, and contributions to the team, Oliver never fully felt comfortable with her in the field at least not without someone watching her back. But right now, he no longer felt that way as it wasn't just powers or increased skills; Laurel was like him and Sara now, experienced.

As Sara noticed the fighting dying down, she caught a glimpse of this Batwoman in action; Laurel clearly respected this woman and now Sara could see why. The way she fought was clearly someone with a military background, she then noticed as Batwoman rolled over on a soldier's back and knocked him in the back of the head with the handle of her unique gun. She then shot the two soldiers in front of her with clean headshots, taking time to reload whatever ammo she was using she then push kick the incoming soldier and then double-tapped him in the chest once she reloaded.

Ava took look around seeing everyone was either knock out or dead, she looked like the place was clear. "I think we're done here," Ava said.

"Search the building, look through their files. Hand's not here but he had to left a trail." Laurel said going to the desktop and searching through the computer files.

"Here let me help," Sara said, but then a giant man came down busting from the above floor. He was dressed in all black and had a mask, and he was at least 9 feet tall and all muscle. Wrapping Sara in a bear hug, with his huge arms; he then jumped into the air and exited the building.

"Sara!" Ava exclaimed and everyone especially Laurel looked worried.

* * *

**Authors Notes: Given Kate's military background and GI Jane demeanor, her using military terms isn't uncommon. "GOFO" means "Grasp of the F****** obvious and "Hawk" is a term used to refer to cold weather.**

**Burnside is a district in Gotham that Batgirl/Barbara Gordon operates in since the New 52.**

**I changed the story picture because I liked the picture of Laurel and it gives views on what I want people to imagine Laurel to look like in this story. Also, for record I'm close to finishing this story but the last couple of chapters I'm really struggling to write.**


	15. Chapter 15 - Instant Armies

Black Hand HQ underneath the Burnside Clinic

"What the hell just happened!" Laurel said out loud.

"Atom Smasher," Caitlin said as she reverted back from Killer Frost.

"I'm guessing that's one of your old rogues?" Oliver asked.

"He absorbs radiation to increase his strength and size exponentially. He's also dead." Caitlin said.

"Yeah, well that obviously changed. Where did he take my girlfriend!" Ava yelled.

Flash speed into the room. "I just saw someone jump right through this building, please tell me that wasn't who I think it was." He asked.

"It was, find him and find Sara!" Laurel ordered.

"Can't, he jumped so high into the night sky he faded from my vision; I can't figure out where he landed," Flash explained.

"Well, we need to find her now!" Ava yelled.

"I'll search the once more, go through files see if you can't figure where he might have taken her," Flash said as he ran out of the room.

"He does that a lot I'm guessing?" Batwoman openly wondered. Afterward, she, Laurel, Ava, Caitlin, and Oliver went to the computers and began looking through the files to find something that would lead them to Sara. Instead, Caitlin found something else.

"Guys, I got something and you're not going like it," Caitlin said, as everyone came to her screen.

"Oh my god," Oliver said.

Derek Hand's Private Loft

Sara's body was sore from the giant that grabbed her, she felt like she was crushed by a bear. Coming too, she noticed that she was bound to a table and noticed doctors taking her blood; part of her flashed back to the AMAZO and the experiments she did with Ivo.

"I trust my associate wasn't too rough on you, Miss Lance." Derek Hand said as he stood over her.

Struggling to break free, Sara relented when she realized she couldn't yet. "You know I usually prefer a guy or a girl to buy me a drink first before tying me up." She said sarcastically.

"So, sassiness is a shared trait in the Lance sisters as well as coming back from the dead." He responded.

"Along with the great hair, good looks, and the ass-kicking; listen, your best option right now is to kill me." She proclaimed.

"Kill you?" He asked.

"Yeah, kill me. Because one I won't talk even if you torture me and two it's not a question of if I get out of here it's when. And, when I do get out here you're going to be strapped to this table and everyone else is going through a glass window." Sara said as she explained her threat.

"You do realize that I could kill you and bring you back to work for me," Hand said to Sara making sure she realized that grim realization. "But for all I know, I wouldn't be able to control you just like I couldn't control your sister, that is after a while."

Sara instinctively raged to go for Hand's throat, but her straps prevented her from doing so. "I know what you did to my mother, you son of a bitch! What you made my sister do to her!" She yelled.

"I admit, I might have been a little hasty in that regard. But if you should blame anyone for her death, blame your sister. Not for killing her of course, but for not letting me bring her back." Hand said.

"So what? So, you could control her like everyone else you've brought back?" She said in anger.

"Why does everyone think I control people all the time? Yes, anyone brought back through my powers I can control but mostly I let them leave their lives; the only thing I ask for in return is that they contribute to Manus in Nigrum." He said before getting up close to Sara and glared at her menacingly. "Now, is that really too much to ask for?"

"Why did you kidnap me?" She asked.

Walking over to the masked behemoth that took her, Hand spoke. "I wanted Al here to take both you and your sister, but he was worried about how he might get captured if he stayed too long. You see, when I bring someone back to life, they require these pills which are synthesized from the same substances that occur from my powers. Otherwise, they'll be worm food again. I wanted your sister because, in addition to my inability to control her since I brought her back, she also doesn't seem to require these pills to stay alive and I haven't been able to figure out why." He said as he approached Sara. "But you, you, I have also had an interest in for a long time. Because if your body still has traces of whatever was used to resurrect you, then maybe just maybe I can use them as well. Let's find out, shall we?" He told her as Sara just looked at him hatefully.

Black Hand HQ underneath the Burnside Clinic

"How would … this … even work?" Ralph asked horrified.

"Basically, the Black Hand has figured out a method to combine a deadly virus with the same chemical substance that Derek Hand uses to reanimate the dead," Caitlin said viewing through one screen to another. "The viral strain seems to be a modified form of Botulinum Toxin, the virus disperses through the air and once it kills you, at the moment of your death you are brought back to life."

"When Sara and I confronted Hand, he told me that as a dead city; Gotham would be a perfect home for the dead," Laurel recalled.

"There are over 3 million people in this city if this virus is released the Black Hand will have an instant army in just a few days." Batwoman realized. "Dr. Snow, what are the effects of Botulinum Toxin?"

"Typically, in its weaponized air form, it is completely colorless and odorless. Between 12 to 36 hours: victims will experience blurred vision, vomiting, and difficulty swallowing. Eventually, without treatment, it will lead to muscle paralysis to the respiratory system to the point you can't breathe without a ventilator." Caitlin explained.

"They suffocate and die, Jesus." John realized.

"Never knew Botox could be so dangerous," Dinah stated.

"When it's weaponized yes. But we have another problem." Caitlin said.

"Don't we always," Laurel said bitterly.

"Typically, treatment for a virus such as this is possible but because this is a modified strain, finding the most effective treatment will be less likely without a sample of the virus. Additionally, because this is a modified strain the effects that I mentioned earlier could very differently." Caitlin explained

"Meaning, that it could kill someone faster?" Ava both asked and guessed.

"Yes, unfortunately." Caitlin reluctantly answered.

"What's our timetable?" Batwoman asked.

"Seems they've already built the damn the thing and knowing what I know about them, they'll release it soon," Laurel said, and she noticed Oliver pulling out a phone to call someone. "Who are you calling, Ollie?"

"Cisco, the Black Hand might have an army soon. We're going need one too." Oliver replied.

Smallville, Kansas, Earth-38

Kara steps outside of the Kent Farm, where her cousin, Clark, grew up on. She really needed this time with him since the government cut ties with her at DEO, but she was really overjoyed when Clark told her that he and his longtime girlfriend, Lois Lane, were expecting a baby together. Of course, this would now make Kara the sole Kryptonian protector of Earth, since the two were planning to go to Argo City to give birth to their baby. Suddenly, Kara heard a rather familiar noise and saw even more familiar faces in front of her.

"Barry, Oliver, Cisco, what are you doing here?" Kara asked though she was happy to see them.

"We need your help, Kara," Oliver said.

"Come on, I'll give you the 411," Barry said.

"But, basically it's the Zombie Apocalypse," Cisco said as Barry and Oliver just looked at him. "What it is!"

Laurel Lance's Safe House

Everyone was back at Laurel's safe house, except for Kate who went back to the Batcave to get something that might help with a viral outbreak. Caitlin was reviewing everything she could about the virus, even had shipments of treatments for standard Botulinum Toxin; she knew it wouldn't be able to properly treat the virus due to its modifications but still, she wondered if it could have some effect on the strain. Barry, Oliver, and Cisco then came back from the dimensional breach with Kara, still in her civilian clothes.

"Wow, Gotham City is just as grim on this Earth as it is on mine," Kara said.

"Oliver, I thought you said you were bringing an army, not someone who looks like Felicity's long-lost sister," Laurel said.

"Trust me, she is a one-woman army," Oliver replied.

"Hey, your Laurel, right?" Kara asked while extending her hand.

"Yeah?" Laurel answered while awkwardly shaking her hand.

"I've heard a lot of good things about you from your sister, Barry, and Oliver; they say you're really awesome. I mean wow, I can't believe I'm meeting someone who used to be dead." Kara awkwardly gushed.

"You have met my sister, right?" Laurel asked with a smile.

"Wait, Sara's been dead too?" Kara asked.

"More than once, his sister as well," Laurel answered and nodded to Oliver referring to Thea.

"Wow, so, is coming back from the dead an Earth-1 thing?" Kara asked curiously.

"No, honey, it's superhero thing," Laurel said bluntly.

Later above the skies in Gotham City, Kara in her Supergirl costume was hovering and checking every floor of every building, and underground beneath the tunnels using her X-Ray vision. The places that still had lead in them made it difficult for her to get an accurate detail on some of the structures but fortunately talking to Barry on comms he was able to confirm the locations were empty. Meanwhile, at the same time, Oliver and Laurel were on a rooftop together on standby. Laurel found herself particularly amazed by Kara's abilities.

"Super Strength, Invulnerability, Flight, X-Ray vision, am I missing anything else?" Laurel asked incredulously.

"She can shoot lasers from her eyes too," Oliver answered.

"I thought the weirdest thing to talk about was time travel, but a god-like alien who dresses like a cheerleader just might take the cake," Laurel said finding herself chuckling.

"It is so weird that's it's kinda funny too isn't," Oliver said as he found himself laughing too.

"Definitely," Laurel said with a laugh before quieting down. "So, I've been meaning to say I heard about you and Felicity tying the knot … congratulations on finding your way back to her." The last part she said a little reluctantly.

"Thanks, although if I'm being honest, we're not exactly living in domestic bliss at the moment," Oliver admitted.

"Why what did you do now?" Laurel asked.

"It's not what I did, it's … while I was in prison Felicity, she made a lot of questionable choices, choices that have changed her and I'm not exactly sure for the better." Oliver reluctantly admitted.

"Did she tell you why she made them?" Laurel asked.

"She said because of me, because of the choices I made without her." He answered.

"Yeah, to say I was surprised when you told the people you where the Green Arrow would be a huge understatement." She said thinking about when Oliver broadcast his identity on television. "Look, whatever choices Felicity has made, I'm sure she made them for a good reason and even if she didn't, well, haven't we all made questionable choices at one point or another?

"I guess so. You would know that better than me right now, wouldn't you?" He said to her as she stood silent. "Look, Laurel what happened to your mom."

"Ollie, don't want to talk about it." She said as she interrupted him.

"Alright. But just in case you forgot, I'm kind of the leading expert in blaming yourself for your parent's death." He reminded her of his own parents, his father in particular. "If there is anyone who could understand what that feels like, it's me." He said as he took her hand with his own.

"Thank you, Ollie." She said as she squeezed his hand. Laurel's phone rang it was Kate.

"Hey, where did you go?" Laurel asked.

"Working my own leads, I got a sample of the virus," Kate said as she walks down the street with a container of the virus.

"How the hell did you pull that off?" Laurel asked.

"I have my ways, plus figured Black Hand had to be doing testing with their virus before they released it. It works, unfortunately, by the way." Kate solemnly stated.

"Well, how soon will you be at the safe house?" Laurel asked.

"Can't, I'm being followed," Kate said as at least three guys were following her. "Now, normally I could take these guys in a heartbeat but considering I'm holding a dangerous bio-weapon sample I'd rather not risk it."

"Can't you shake them?" Laurel asked though she already knew the answer.

"What do you think I've been trying to do for the past 10 minutes. Get your little red friend will you." Kate demanded.

"I'll get you, someone, better," Laurel said as she hung up.

Kate eventually made a turn into an alleyway, and not surprisingly they followed her, and she decided to greet them.

"Problem, fellas?" Kate asked with a smirk.

"Yeah, you have something that belongs to us." One of them said as they pulled out their guns.

"Sure, you wanna do that?" Kate said as she put the container in front of them.

"Yeah, we do." He said as the moment he pulled the trigger, Kara arrived and blocked the bullet with her impenetrable skin. The guys react and repeatedly fired at her although it had no effect on her as Kara just walked towards them, crushing the middle one's gun she then struck him in the head knocking him out cold. Then she grabbed the other two by their shirts and threw both against the walls simultaneously.

"Laurel was right, I do like you," Kate said as she walked towards Kara. "Kara Danvers, right?"

"Laurel told you who I am?" Kara asked a little worried about her identity.

"She said because your visiting from another "world" she didn't see the harm," Kate said.

"Fair enough. I can get that to Caitlin faster than you can." Kara said as she was handed the case. "See you around Kate," She said as she flew off.

"Cool," Kate said in amazement.

Oliver received a call from Kara on comms. "Alright, thanks, Kara," Oliver said. "Caitlin has a sample of the virus she might be able to help us not only find it but maybe treat it if gets out."

"Good," Laurel said, as she and Oliver planned to leave the rooftop.

"Hey, how do you know Kate Kane?" He asked.

"She's one of Batwoman's contacts in the city, she also allows her to use her resources," Laurel said which wasn't a complete lie.

"No wonder her tech seems better than mine," Oliver said a little jealous as it was clear that Batwoman's tech was better than his own. Suddenly the door opened, and Oliver saw a familiar face, he knew it because he killed this man.

"Hello, Arrow, oh I'm sorry It's Green Arrow, right?" Count Vertigo said before shooting Oliver with a sub-machine gun.

* * *

**Author's Notes: Nearing the end just a few more chapters left but I'm struggling to finish them so they may come at later dates.**


	16. Chapter 16 - Victims

Gotham City Rooftop

Dodging the gunfire from the sub-machine gun that Count Vertigo used, who was supposed to be dead, Oliver and Laurel ran in the same direction and jumped off the rooftop. Oliver reached for his quiver and grabbed a grappling arrow, then fired it and reached for Laurel grabbing her as they fell. Halfway through the drop, however, a knife was thrown and severed the line causing Laurel and Oliver to hit the ground hard; although in pain they were still alive. As Oliver struggled to get up, he saw the person who cut the line was another person who was supposed to be dead; Guillermo Barrera, a hitman who specialized with knives.

"Oliver Queen, hard to believe a trust fund pendejo like you killed me," Barrera said amused.

"Remember us, Queen." A person said, out loud and Oliver saw their faces in the small crowd. They were all people he killed or died because of him, during his crusade. Leo Mueller, a German arms dealer that he had John go after when he needed to prove to the police that he and the vigilante were two separate people. Joseph Faulk, aka the Savior, an out of control vigilante that he killed to save Roy's life. Adam Hunt, the first person he took down by stealing all his money and returning it to those he stole from, who was then killed by Malcolm. Ted Gaynor, John's old CO, who was using his security team to commit armed robberies and tried to kill John and Carlie at the same time. Finally, Barton Mathis, a serial killer known as the Dollmaker who dressed his victims up like dolls who Sara killed after he endangered her family. Most of these people or at least the ones he could see that weren't masked where his victims.

"You're going to pay for what did us, Queen!" Vertigo said as he exited the door from the building Oliver was just on.

Laurel Lance's Safehouse

Caitlin was studying the virus sample that Kara delivered, once again Caitlin found herself fascinated by the science despite the malevolent intentions it was going to be used for. Fortunately, she found that the standard treatment for weaponized Botulinum is the same, however, the main problem was finding a counteragent to the chemical substance that the Black Hand uses to reanimate the dead.

"Any luck?" Kara asked Caitlin who was analyzing the viral sample that Kara got from Kate.

"Well, the good news is that the viral compound responds to the standard treatment for weaponized Botulinum, but the bad news is that to fully counteract it we need something else." Caitlin sighed.

"And you don't know what that is." Kara guessed.

"No," Caitlin said but then heard the alarm on the other tests that she ran on Laurel earlier, Caitlin now believed that she knew the reason why Laurel was different than the reanimated.

Derek Hand's Safe House

Still struggling to get out of her straps, these doctors had tied her down but good. In the League of Assassins, Sara like most of their members was taught how to escape various confinements. But what most escape artists won't tell you is that while it is possible to get out of situations like this, it is particularly painful. However, Sara was accustomed to pain by now. One of the doctors was taking another blood sample from her, giving Sara an idea.

"Hey doc, do you mind," Sara asked as she flipped her hair and showed her neck. "I really need to have this scratched." Not seeing the harm, he did just that.

As he left her, Sara took a firm hold of the pen she barely managed to swipe from the doctor's lab coat. Pushing the pen into the palm of her skin, Sara began moving it until she started bleeding. An old escape artist trick is using blood as a lubricant to slip out of restraints more easily, once the blood got to her wrist. Slipping her hand of the restraint, Sara then removed the straps. Sneaking up on the doctor, she knocked him out cold. Sara sucked with computers, though in her defense there was no training for hacking into computers in Nanda Parbat. She did hope that she could send a message or signal to the others so that they could find her location. Sara then heard guns being clocked and then jumped over the lab desk for cover.

As the guards began firing on her, Sara began to wonder. "Hope the others get the message before I'm dead … again."

Streets of Gotham City

On one of the rooftops of Gotham's skyscrapers, Barry found the device that was supposed to release the virus. However, instead of destroying the device or removing it from the city; Barry decided to hack into the device in order to figure the locations of the other devices, as Caitlin suggested for the virus to reach the maximum infection rate there needed to be several devices throughout the city.

"Guys I found the device, I just found out that there are all synchronized to activate at the same time," Barry said over his comms while hacking into the device's computer at superspeed.

"What are their locations, Barry?" John asked.

"Sending them to you now, Dig," Barry replied but as he was typing, he was stroke by a bolt of lightning which through Barry back several feet. Getting on his feet, Barry saw the first metahuman he ever faced, Clyde Mardon, who could manipulate the weather but seemed better at it than before.

"Long time no see, Flash," Clyde said as he descended from the air.

"Mardon, I think I liked you better when you were dead," Barry said as he struggled to get up.

"You know I remember your face just before I kicked the bucket, but I can't recall it for the life of me," Clyde said.

"Well, you never we're very bright." Barry retorted.

"Well, I guess I'll remind myself when I rip that mask off your corpse," Clyde said then channeled a bolt of lightning and shot it at the Flash who immediately dodged it. Charging at Clyde, Barry was then hit again by the Rival, Edward Clariss.

"Cute trick, Flash, not going happen this time," Clariss said, however, Barry then phased and dropped down to the next floor of the building before running at superspeed.

"Guys, we've got problems," Barry said on comms.

"Unless your enemies have come back from the dead, we've got bigger problems," Oliver said shooting his arrows.

"Uh, that's exactly what my problems are Oliver. You too?" Barry asked.

"Pretty much," Laurel said as she pushed one enemy to the wall pinning him with his rifle then after disarming him, threw him to the ground and kicked him in the face to knock him out. "What is it, Barry?"

"I need to know if you got the locations I sent you before I was ambushed by Clariss and Weather Wizard's brother," Barry asked.

"Copy that Barry, Dinah and I headed to one right now!" John said in the van with Dinah at his side.

"Elongated Man and Vibe are at the second location," Ralph said as he and Cisco came from a portal to an alleyway.

"You know Ralph the Bat-Chick isn't on comms, we don't have use codenames," Cisco replied.

"But you know it's cool when we do," Ralph said with a grin.

Leaving the warehouse, arming herself with a gun; Ava spoke up on comms. " Supergirl is already heading to the other location. We just got a distress signal from Sara, we're going to rescue her and take out Hand if we get the chance." She said.

"Laurel, can you talk right now?" Caitlin asked over comms.

"Give me a sec," Laurel said as she was dodging the knife strikes of Barrera before finally grabbing him and throwing him over her shoulder and then knocked him out be delivering a hard punch to his face. "What's up?" She asked.

"I got the final results of your bloodwork," Caitlin said.

"This isn't the best time to tell me I need to lower my cholesterol, Caitlin." Laurel joked.

"I think I know why you're different from the other the reanimated," Caitlin explained.

"My curiosity needs to be satisfied another time," Laurel said taking cover around a car from the impending gunfire with Oliver.

"Laurel, listen to me! In your blood work, I found a dormant regenerative enzyme. This enzyme, when affected by the chemical substance that Hand uses to reanimate the dead, it must have reactivated this enzyme causing a reaction that brought you back differently than others." Caitlin explained.

"So that's how I came back?" Laurel said perplexed. "But, wait, this enzyme how did I get it exactly. Is it my powers?" She asked.

"I don't believe so no," Caitlin said.

"Then how the hell am I different from them?" Laurel asked as loud as she could under the sound of heavy gunfire.

"I think I know," Oliver said then fired an explosive arrow at his now alive former victims. "The Lazarus Pit." He stated plainly.

"Ollie, I've never even touched the Lazarus Pit," Laurel answered figuring she knew what Oliver was getting at referring to the magic hot tub that they both used to bring back their sisters.

"But you were, Laurel." He reassured her and then she got a look on her face that jogged her memory.

"Thea's blood." She recalled. "The enzyme comes from the pit and when I got my blood transfusion from Thea, it got into my system."

"There were things even Malcolm, didn't fully understand about the pit. I think this is one of them." He reminded her and himself too.

"And you weren't the only one affected by the pit, Laurel. Sara was too and they have her." Ava said on comms.

"Ollie, from the very beginning Black Hand, wanted to know how I brought Sara back to life and if I have this enzyme in me then so does she which means," Laurel told me her voice slowly panicking.

"Which means it won't take them long to figure out how she came back, and once they do; they'll be able to bring people back the same way as they did you," Oliver said. "Getting Sara back isn't just something we have to do now, it's something we need to do."

"Ollie, I need to go after her now! Can you handle these guys?" Laurel asked.

"I have before, go save your sister," Oliver said as Laurel left she gave him a kiss on the cheek for luck.

As Oliver provided cover fire for Laurel, she ran out into another alley where she ran into Barton Mathis, the Dollmaker. This psycho nearly killed her by trying to turn her into a porcelain doll, looking back this guy might have been the final straw that led her to alcoholism. "Hello, my pretty. As lovely as your new hair is, I prefer my dolls with long flowing hair." Mathis said as he began twirling his knives. "I suppose I can dress you up in a wig once I'm done with you," He said with a twisted smile before swinging his knives at her, unfortunately for the Dollmaker, Laurel wasn't the hostage she was when he kidnapped her. Even without her reflexes being enhanced from the ambush she could still take him with her powers, seeing an opening Laurel punched him hard in the chest sending him against a brick wall.

Grabbing his neck, Laurel held him against the wall. "Not gonna lie, I gonna enjoy this a little!" Laurel said as she gripped his forehead, then using her enhanced strength from the sound she has absorbed smashed the back of his head against the wall returning him to the dead and to hell where he belonged. Walking away from Mathis' corpse, Laurel heard Cisco on comms.

"Hey, Laurel heard you're going after Sara make sure to stop by your safe house." He said

"Why?" She asked.

"I had something made for you a while back and I had Barry drop by S.T.A.R. Labs to pick it up for you," Cisco said enthusiastically.

Supergirl's location

Kara found the dispersal device on top of the rooftop of a building called ACE Chemicals. Descending from the sky, Kara found several people around the rooftop guarding the device and she counted six.

"Figures Black Hand would be stepping up their security," Kara said and was surprised not because all six men turned to point their guns at her but because they were all identical to each other. "Why do I get the feeling you guys aren't sextuplets?" Kara openly guessed and her suspicions were confirmed when the six became seven, eight, twelve, twenty, and more; who then suddenly began firing on her. Fortunately, Kara walked fast towards him her skin deflecting the bullets and began throwing the enemies aside heading to the device. As Kara was about to rip the device from the ground and fly it into space, Kara suddenly felt someone pull on her cape and threw her to the ground. She saw her attacker, based on his appearance and the strength he had; Kara took a guess that this was Atom Smasher that the others informed her about. Getting on to her feet, Kara went towards him and two began to swing at each other before Kara got the upper hand punched him across the rooftop causing him to hit several of the clones. As Atom Smasher, got up, Kara kicked herself for not noticing it any sooner but the villain had a bomb on his chest. Hitting it, the bomb exploded and instead of harming him, Atom Smasher absorbed the strange energy and began growing in size reaching at least 60 feet.

"Great Rao!" Kara exclaimed the name of her Kryptonian God as Atom Smasher brought down his gigantic fist.

Vibe and Elongated Man's location

"Figures, the others get the awesome views of the rooftops and we get the sewers," Ralph said agitatedly.

"Urgh, I don't even want to know what I just stepped in," Cisco said disgustedly, eventually walking up they spotted the several armed men around the device as well as a familiar face from earlier this year, William York aka Gridlock.

"Is that who I think that is?" Ralph asked the obvious, with Cisco looking at him annoyed at his stupid question.

"Ready?" Cisco said.

"Better shoot first Han," Ralph said and Cisco fired a blast of vibrational at the men hitting one and then the others then responded with gunfire which Ralph then stretched his body and got in front of Cisco to cover him from the bullets. Gridlock starting walking towards them and Cisco fired a blast at him and he absorbed its kinetic energy before attempting to engage him.

John Diggle and Dinah Drake's location

"We're two blocks away from our destination," John said to Dinah in the driver's seat of their van.

"I'm all suit up," Dinah said in her Black Canary costume climbing out of the back of the van to the front seat. Suddenly, the two felt a huge impact hit their van and sent it crashing to the side. Struggling to get up out of the van, John, and Dinah were still were injured busting through the broken windshield. Dinah saw the others that attacked them, looked like a standard tactical team of 10. Aiming their guns at them, Dinah unleashed Cry pushing some of them back while painfully deafening the others, struggling John grabbed Dinah as they limbed away to a nearby alley.

"You okay Dinah?" John asked.

"Urgh, I think I broke a rib. Still, probably look better than you though," Dinah jested referring to the blood on John's face.

A soldier then tackled John and tried to stab him but John managed to turn him on his back and move the knife aside. Punching him in the face, John removed and stopped once he saw who it was.

"Hi, John miss me?" Andy Diggle said.

"Andy?" John replied as he then felt his brother stab him in the abdomen with another knife.

* * *

**Author's Notes: This was probably the hardest and longest chapter for me to write but it's also the one I was most looking forward to writing. The heroes particularly, Oliver, facing the victims from Season 1 would be most interesting as he would be facing the choices he made when he was a different man. As to how the Black Hand found these victims since Oliver revealed his identity to the public it wouldn't be hard for someone like a private investigator to look into Oliver's victims and find out where they are buried. Also, I only choose the ones whose corpses could be found, so guys like Malcolm Merlyn and Adrian Chase couldn't be found by the usual means.**

**For those of you who do not remember in chapter 9, I wrote that Laurel got a blood transfusion from Thea after taking a bullet for John. With a small piece of the Lazarus Pit in her system combined with the Black Hand's reanimation process created a full-blown resurrection for her without any side effects from either one. May not be the best resurrection, but trust me there are much crazier and convoluted ones in comics.**

**We are nearing the end, only two chapters left as I want to start working on other stories.**


	17. Chapter 17 - Fall of the Black Hand

**Heads up, longest chapter I've ever written so far.**

* * *

The Black Hand's Safe House

"I traced the signal back to this location, hopefully, Sara's still alive in there," Ava said, as she exited the van with Caitlin who then transformed into her Killer Frost persona.

"Knowing Sara, she's probably taken most of them down by herself, she's a badass like that," Frost said.

"I know it's half the reason I love her, but she's also been killed before and they want to cut her open for their experiments pardon me if I'm overly protective at the moment." Ava cocking her gun.

"Well, take your concern out on them," Frost said, as several armed soldiers charged them as Ava then aimed her gun and fired. Caitlin also fired several icicles at them, as some of them got closer, she used the moisture in the air to create a pair of knives and used them to quickly dispatch the guards. Some of them managed to get up and got passed Frost charging at Ava. Out of ammo, Ava resorted to close combat using the heavy gun to take them down, however, some managed to push her against the van and began slugging her. Suddenly, a huge screaming sound came incapacitating everyone as a black-clad Laurel came then threw one of the men over her shoulder and into the soldiers Caitlin was fighting, then kneed the other in his face before helping Ava up.

"You couldn't have saved me without blowing out my eardrums?" Ava asked loudly her ears still ringing.

"Your welcome," Laurel replied before walking towards Caitlin.

"Nice ... hair." Laurel said as she never took a chance to really look at Caitlin as "Killer Frost".

"Nice outfit," Frost sassed noting Laurel's new costume, Cisco was working on it for Laurel just before she died and later finished it possibly as a coping tool for losing his "favorite customer". Frost found herself admiring the outfit, there was a resemblance to her old uniform but the biggest change was the yellow lining in the black jacket and pants. Caitlin also noticed some fishnet pattern mesh in the pants, specifically around the sides of the thighs and the inner thighs. Frost also wondered if seeing Laurel's doppelganger in fishnets partially inspired the look.

"Badass right, Cisco really outdid himself," Laurel said loving her new Black Canary suit even though she wasn't technically Black Canary anymore, though she was a little unsure about the fishnets. She also took noticed of the 200-foot building and the sign that was posted on the building, Asceplius Relief Aid, which was a painful recollection too her. "Figures, let's get going," She said as Laurel headed into the building with Frost and Ava, walking in they quickly heard the sound of gunfire. Rushing up the stairs, they stopped once they heard where the violence was loudest and entered the room, as soon as the soldiers aimed their guns, Frost fired at them with her ice powers freezing them instantly.

The women then noticed Sara, coming out of the cover from behind a desk; she had blood on her face and some on her body but overall seemed fine. "So my signal got through, thanks, I was actually starting to need some help." She said walking towards them, as Ava then rushed passed Laurel and Frost, to hug her.

"Sara, are you okay. Did they take anything from you?" Ava asked frantically.

"Blood, skin, hair. Nothing that won't grow back, why?" Sara asked.

"It's the Lazarus Pit, Sara," Laurel said approaching her. "There's an enzyme in your system and mine. Hand's powers combined with that enzyme brought me back and prevented him from controlling me afterward. If he figures out a way to use it, he could bring people back without the need for his pills." She said then left for the door.

"Laurel where you going?" Frost said.

"To end this, to end all of this for good!" Laurel said in a high tone.

"Laurel, no, if anything we've got to get you and Sara as far away from them as possible," Ava said.

"I've been hunting and have been hunted by these sons of bitches for two years. I've had to lie to my family, I've had to stay away from them, pretend I'm dead and I've ... they ... they ... they made me kill my own mother!" Laurel said, as Frost and Ava, looked startled. "I'm not letting this go, ever! You wanna leave, leave, but I'm finishing this tonight!" She yelled.

Ava took a long look at Sara "I guess I shouldn't be surprised, that your sister's nurses a grudge as much as do you." She sighed.

"Runs in our family, you should've seen our dad," Sara answered.

"Can we please save the small talk and go kick somebody's ass," Killer Frost said becoming agitated by things becoming too sappy for her taste as she and Laurel began walking back to the staircase.

"Oh, before I forget I thought you might need these," Ava said handing Sara her trademark batons.

Taking them in her hands, Sara smirked. "I really love you right now." She said and the two followed, Laurel and Frost. Sara also noticed Ava really looking at Laurel, possibly staring at her ass and legs.

"Checking my sister out, Director Sharpe?" Sara asked with a smirk.

"No, no, no. Well, maybe a little. But mostly, I'm imagining what you would look like in fishnets." Ava shamefully admitted.

"Hmm, well when this over maybe I'll buy some to wear for you later," Sara replied.

Laurel, Sara, Killer Frost, and Ava all walked up the staircase to the top floor, eventually, they found Derek Hand. Killer Frost took noticed what was on the very giant computer screen, analysis samples from what it looks like of Sara's blood; catching their reflection, Hand greeted them.

"Did you know that the night I achieved my powers during the particle accelerator explosion, I died. Nothing, overly tragic mind you just a car accident. But at the exact moment of my death, the particle accelerator reanimated me. Imagine that, being stuck between the moment between life and death. It wasn't long after that, that I found out that I bring others back in the same manner as I did. Then I realized, who was I to deny others the same opportunity, to give them a second chance that I was given." He explained as he got up and turned at them.

"And what exactly have you done with this second life huh? Laurel angrily asked. "Exploiting people's grief, controlling their lives, and for what!

"To build an empire," Hand said plainly. "Laurel, Sara, help me build it. The enzyme in your blood is the key, no longer will people need to be sustained by my powers.

"I think I speak for my sister and everyone else here that we much rather burn it the ground," Sara yelled.

Hand sighed heavily before speaking. "Oh well, I guess I'll just harvest it from your corpses," Whistling, several armed men appeared and attack them, however, Killer Frost simply sent a powerful cold wave to immobilize them and then create razor-sharp ice disks that severed some of their limbs. Fortunately, because of the cold wave or because they were dead; there wasn't much blood. Hand's eyes began to turn into a crazy black design, immediately the severed limbs and corpses began crawling towards the women as if they had a life of their own, as Hand was controlling the cut-off parts.

"Urgh, that is literally the grossest thing I've seen," Ava said disgustedly in her voice and expression.

"Agreed, so please start shooting." Killer Frost ordered and Ava followed shooting the corpses. Unfortunately, the corpses then running for the bodies and the sound of several somethings hit the floor. The ladies then realized the corpses and their limbs had pulled the pins from their grenades, reacting quickly Killer created an ice shield which Sara, Laurel, and Ava got behind for cover as the grenades exploded destroying the shield causing the women to hit the floor.

Laurel struggled to get up, her powers let her absorb the sound made by the grenades, unfortunately, it didn't allow her to absorb the blast itself. "Cough, cough, we still alive girls?" She asked.

"Ugh, barely." Killer Frost said.

"AHHHHH," Ava screamed on the floor, bleeding from her right side.

"Ava!" Sara yelled struggling move to check on her condition.

"Move aside," Killer Frost said and then reverted back to Caitlin who then removed Ava's kevlar vest and quickly examined her. "Sharpnel's penetrated her liver and her abdomen, I can't remove it in a field like this."

"Just take of her and will take care of him," Sara said, kissing Ava on her forehead before getting up and expanding her batons.

Laurel walked over to the corpses and noticed their weapons, grabbing them she armed herself with two tonfa nightsticks. "Hello, old friends." She mumbled as Sara stood beside her ready for a fight.

"Well if you want something done right do it your self," Hand said out loud as he removed his blazer and then his button shirt revealing a chemical storage device on his body with two IV tubes, each one connecting to an arm of his. Activating the device, Hand then grew in size at 8 feet tall now. His muscles becoming massive, so big that a small child could wrap their entire arms around them.

Both Laurel and Sara were startled and unsettled by his appearance. "Okay, that might be the grossest thing I've seen," Sara spoke up as Hand, now built like a behemoth, charged at her and Laurel.

The Flash's Location

Barry was dodging the lightning bolts generated by Clyde Mardon, his control over his powers was like his brother now. Generating enough speed and momentum, Barry leaped into the air to punch Mardon who was hovering in the air. While in mid-air, he was then struck by a red energy blast sending him into the ground. Getting up, Barry saw two more old enemies who were supposed to be dead. Jake Simmons aka Deathbolt, a meta-human who could fire energy from his eyes and was killed by Leonard Snart. The other was Eddie Slick aka Sand Demon, a metahuman from Earth 2 who could transform himself into sand and was inadvertently killed by Barry himself.

"Long time no see, Flash" Slick yelled as then transformed into sand and moved quickly until he was behind Barry and began slugging him. As Barry caught an opening, he generated lightning in his hands and began striking Slick causing the blows he received to his body to turn into glass. As Barry punched at his face, Slick dissipated to escape. Deathbolt then shot Barry in the back with another energy blast from eyes but Barry managed to avoid another blast and doubled back to gain some distance. Running towards him, Deathbolt then channeled his energy towards the ground injuring Barry as he fell on his knees. To make matters worse, Slick reappeared but he was bigger and larger as his sand form was at least 30 feet tall now.

"Well, they've learned some new tricks," Barry said stating the obvious.

Supergirl's Location

Atom Smasher now a giant, threw his massive fist at Kara who held it back with both of her hands; Atom Smasher then brought down the other hand on Kara who then went through the building, crashing through several floors. Though uninjured, Kara did feel sore and managed to catch a glimpse of Atom Smasher jumping off the top of the building possibly because if he said on top of it anymore he would collapse the building and Kara felt the large tremor when he landed. More of those duplicates had appeared and charged her and Kara fought them off but eventually, they surrounded and tackled her. Kara was told that those brought back from the dead were stronger than before, not as strong as her but stronger than a normal human; with this many numbers and this increased strength plus still being sore from Atom Smasher was giving her trouble. Suddenly, Kara heard a gunshot and then another, with each shot one of the duplicates went down allowing Kara to get out and push away the duplicates. She then took notice of a red-headed woman dressed as a bat, drop from the railing and after landing walked towards Kara.

"You know they're dead right, there's no need to hold back," Kate exclaimed.

"Force of habit for someone with my powers, thanks for the save Batgirl," Kara said as she got up.

"It's Batwoman." Kate said in annoyance as they're discussion was interrupted by Atom Smasher running his fists through Ace Chemicals. "You take the giant luchador, I got the "Orphan Black" wannabes." Kara nodded and flew out of the building and punched Atom Smasher in the face, while Kate was surrounded by the Multiplex Clones but used her grapple gun to get up in the air before they could tackle her. Kate then dropped on two of the men, then kicked the men's faces coming at her. Taking out a stun baton, Kate began hitting each of the clones with blunt force and electricity.

Green Arrow's Location

Oliver engaged in a knife fight against Barrera using his last arrow as an improvised knife. The duel was at a fast pace and while Oliver was more skilled a fighter than Barrera then and especially now but Barrera was stronger and a lot more tolerant of pain. Barrera sent a push kick so strong that it broke Oliver's block, he then charged at him and stabbed him on the top of his right shoulder, however, taking advantage of this Oliver grabbed ahold of Barrera ignoring the pain of the knife in his shoulder. Clutching his opponent, Oliver repeatedly kicked his knee with all his strength until it dislocated; Barrera stumbled losing his balance allowing Oliver the chance to plunge his arrow into his skull by going underneath his chin. As his enemy fell dead once again, Oliver removed the knife from his shoulder and the arrow from Barrera's skull he was bombarded by gunfire once more and took cover. Oliver then fired his last arrow and ducked, he hated when his quiver ran empty. Since Vertigo showed up, he and Laurel faced over thirty men and since she left to go after Sara; Oliver was now down to at least five people. Normally going up against five guys by himself even without any arrows wouldn't be much of a problem right now, except they are all unable to feel pain and were stronger than normal since they came back to life. To make matters worse he was injured, in his shoulder and he had at least three broken ribs.

Oliver caught a glimpse of Ted Gaynor moving towards him and he caught a glimpse of Oliver, needing to change tactics, Oliver activated a function on his bow causing flares and smoke bombs to appear from it; disappearing from Gaynor's sight. Knowing the Hood couldn't have gotten too far from the area, Gaynor decided to taunt him to lure him out. "You know I still remember the pain I felt when shot me with one of those arrows. But what I remember the most of the night that you killed me, was you how took my life and lives of my men. Men who devoted themselves to this country and got nothing from it, who just wanted something back for sacrificing their blood, limbs, and even friends for a country filled by spoiled and arrogant one-percenters like you!" He said searching through the area.

"You're a hypocrite, Queen." Joseph Faulk aka the Savior said. "I was cleaning up our city, just like you! Killing scumbags just like you! You know what I think, I think that you can't tolerate anyone who's a vigilante in your city unless they're working for you."

"How many men did you kill to get me huh? How many men with livelihoods, wives, and children!" Justin Claybourne, a corrupt pharmaceuticals businessman and the father of Adrian Chase said.

"Personally Oliver, I really don't care that you killed me. If anything, it gave me a new lease on life. However, I'm still gonna kill you just for the fun of it." Count Vertigo said out loud, leaving Oliver who was hiding in the shadows feeling both guilt and anger at their words.

Spartan's and Black Canary's Location

Using herself as John's crutch, Dinah was moving with him throughout the streets struggling to get to the dispersal device's location and especially away from his recently resurrected psychotic brother. John was understandably stunned seeing Andy alive again, and he took advantage of it and stabbed him in the gut, reacting as quickly as possible she hit him with her Cry causing the younger brother to smash into a building. Arriving at the location, Dinah searched for somewhere they could get cover but she wasn't in the best shape herself clutching her ribs.

"Dinah they'll be here any minute," John said his hands on his abdomen.

"Right now we need to stop your bleeding," Dinah exclaimed.

"Hrgh, knife on my boot and a lighter in left pocket." He said in pain as Dinah took them both.

"So Dig, you wanna tell me why you carry a pack of cigarettes when you don't smoke?" She asked trying to distract John from the pain and out of curiosity.

"Useful excuse for going into places that you shouldn't." He explained. Using the lighter, Dinah heated the knife for a few minutes before lifting John's shirt and then cauterized the wound trying to ignoring John's screams. Miraculously, John didn't pass out from the pain.

"So was that really your brother, Andy," She asked.

"Unfortunately." He replied still breathing in pain. "Laurel was right, these people the Black Hand, they really are the worst bunch of criminals. They're bringing back the people we've loved ... the people we've hurt ... all so they can hurt us and kill us."

"Hate to admit it but it's working, really throwing us off our game ... especially you." She admitted. "What happened between you and your brother, I mean I know he was dirty but I never knew how ... things ended between the two of you."

"Andy was working for Darhk even after we captured him, he was playing us the whole time; playing me. In the end, it was me trusting him that got Laurel killed. When I caught him, I had him pinned down but he threatened to never to stop hunting him or Lyla or JJ; he kept taunting me until ... until I shot him. I killed my little brother." He reluctantly explained and Dinah just looked at him. "You know I was really expecting something than just stunned silence."

"If you're expecting me to judge you or something I'm not. Am I stunned, yeah obviously? But as someone whose done questionable even awful things in grief and rage, I get it." She said. "But right now we need to put a hold on this therapy session and figure out a way to survive because your creepy little brother and his goons will be here soon, and we are not in the best shape at the moment."

Looking around their surroundings, John found that they were in an abandoned factory and he got an idea. "Dinah, let's look around this place see if their's anything useful we can use for an ambush."

Vibe and Elongated Man's Location

Ralph was engaged in a fight against Gridlock, his punches no matter how strong were harmlessly absorbed by Ralph's elastic body. Seeing his opportunity, Ralph stretched his body and wrapped himself around Gridlock like a snake; then putting enough pressure on his body, broke his limbs in several different places. Cisco then created a breach to appear behind the two remaining gunmen and with both hands fired vibrational energy knocking both of them down.

"So, any ideas on how to disarm this thing?" Ralph said walking over to Cisco.

"No, but I've got a better idea," Cisco said, then open another breach in which Ralph saw a fiery lava-pit world. "Some help please, Cicada's shards are making it very hard to keep this open," Ralph responded and threw the device into the molten infested world.

"Enjoy, Mustafar!" Ralph expressed and he and Cisco then high-fived but Cisco the ached in pain because of his injuries, that forgot at the last minute. "Sorry dude."

The Lance Sisters' Location

Laurel and Sara dodged another Hand's attacks as his fist slammed on the ground, both Sara and Laurel struck him as hard as they could with their weapons but it had no effect on him. Hand then hit the Lance sisters, sending them flying across the room both hitting the wall.

"Okay, I love a man with muscles as much as the next girl but that is overkill," Laurel winced in pain trying to get up.

"So, what exactly turned him into the next Mr. Universe?" Sara asked rubbing her head, worried she might have a concussion.

"I think I know. There's a drug that comes from Santa Prisca that's been known to show up in Gotham, some kind of super steroid that increases the muscles to superhuman levels. But from what I've heard, the effects aren't this effective." Laurel answered holding her shoulder in pain.

"If had to guess, I think it's because he's a reanimated. Because of it, he must be able to use more of the drug without any determinantal side-effects." Sara guessed using her medical knowledge from Ivo.

Hand then charged at Laurel and Sara again, the two ducked and rolled in different directions. But Hand then jumped and using all of his newfound strength, put enough force to bring the whole floor the three were fighting on to start to crumble before all three of them fell through it as the floor finally collapsed. Hand simple rose from his feet, his large musculature protecting him from the floor collapsing. Sara got through the rumble that was on top of her, she was pretty sure she broke something but was ignoring the pain to continue fighting. However, Sara caught a glimpse of Laurel, despite being covered in dust from the rumble and blood on her face her sister seemed in better shape than her; it must be nice to have powers she thought.

Not wasting time, Laurel charged at Hand. Knowing she was fully charged during her fight with him, she got up close to him. Using her training as a boxer, Laurel hit him in his ribs with all of her enhanced strength, bobbing and weaving from his attacks as she kept repeating her pattern. Thinking to herself, Hand was a better fighter than she thought; but she was better than him especially after her extreme training with a "certain mercenary" after she came back to life. Eventually, Laurel finally felt his ribs crack as she hit him; even though he couldn't feel pain anymore he could still be slowed down. Seeing an opportunity, Sara charged at him and jumped on his back; choking him with her baton. Using the opportunity his sister gave her, Laurel unleashed a fury of blows on him but eventually, Hand got loose from Sara and threw her like a ragdoll at Laurel.

Getting up first, Sara helped her sister up and noticed their attacks must be working because Hand wasn't charging at them. "I think we're finally slowing him down," Sara told Laurel.

"Not enough, plus we've got a problem," Laurel replied.

"What?" Sara asked.

"My powers are gone, I need more sound," Laurel stated and she pulled out her sonic device. "Plus, I think this broke during the fight; I hate to say this but with your injuries and the fact I need time to absorb more sound, our chances don't look good."

Sara hated to admit it but Laurel was right, looking at the floor that they had fallen through she saw a speaker system on both corners of the floor and saw four more on the floor that they were currently on. This gave Sara an idea. "Laurel give me that," She demanded the sonic device.

"Why?" Laurel asked.

"Because I have an idea to get you so much sound you'll beat his ass senseless," Sara answered. "But, I'm gonna need you to stall for much time as possible." Trusting her sister, Laurel handed her the damaged sonic device.

"I hope you know what you're doing," Laurel stated.

"So do I," Sara replied. Before giving Laurel her batons just in case, Sara ran passed Hand who tried to capture her but Laurel successfully hit him in the face with her batons, turning his focus on her as Sara left the floor to the staircase. Combining the batons into Sara's signature bo-staff, Laurel prepared to engage the leader of the Black Hand once more.

The Flash's Location

Overpowered by his enemies, Barry, still running at high speed was eventually grabbed by Clariss and thrown to the floor by him; where he took the attacks of Sand Demon's gigantic fists, Deathbolt's energy blasts, and a giant piece of hail from Clyde Mardon. Struggling to get up, Barry knew he was in trouble. For whatever reason, Clariss could match his speed even still Barry could handle him alone but with three other metas who were in better control of their powers than before made things difficult. Then a thought came to him, it was risky and would be tiring afterward but he had to try as he finally got us his feet.

"That all you got? No wonder you guys were so easy to take down," Barry yelled hoping they take the taunts. "I mean, come back from the dead as much as you like and learn as many new tricks as you like but in the end, all you'll be is a bunch of one-offs!"

Responding to his taunts, Clariss ran at Barry punched him hard in the gut then gut behind him to hold as Mardon fired a lightning bolt, Deathbolt fired an energy blast from his eyes, and Sand Demon extended his gigantic fist; all aimed right at Barry. At the near-instant, the attacks would have hit him, Barry activated Flashtime: an ability he discovered that allows him to generate enough Speed Force energy that time is slowed down around him to the point that it seemed to have stopped.

"What the ... What the hell is happening?" Clariss said in confusion. Not surprised by Clariss's confusion or that he was unaffected by Flashtime's effects because he was a speedster, Barry took advantage of the moment to escape his hold and throw Clariss over his shoulder into the attacks that were meant for him. Though time was slowed down, interacting with those attacks caused Clariss to be thrown back from the force of their attacks. Now on his back, Barry charged at Claris and pinned him to the ground and began vibrating his hand.

"I usually don't do this but because you're already dead." Barry then phased his hand into Clariss's head instantly returning his status from undead to dead. "I've got plenty of rivals already and you were never one of them." Deactivating Flashtime, Barry standing in a different location than before caused confusion to his enemies.

"How ... what, what happened." Deathbolt said. Barry then began running around his three remaining enemies and create speed mirages of himself, Mardon and Deathbolt respond by shooting them with their powers missing the real Barry every time. Using the mirages as a distraction, Barry eventually built up enough electricity to throw it directly at Deathbolt's head, ending him once again. Running in between Slick and Mardon, Barry once again began taunting them again.

"You know Mardon, I never get tired of kicking your family's asses; you, your brother, and most recently your niece. Are you guys sure there isn't a genetic component for losers?" Barry said taunting him, then Clyde fired bolt lightning once more at Barry which Barry dodge, although it was a lot harder than it looked. The bolt hit Slick, then turned him into glass. With only Mardon, left then blitzed at him at superspeed and phased his through him.

Exhausted from the fight, Barry collapsed to catch his breath but then heard Batwoman on comms. "Flash, Supergirl and I are having some trouble with your old Rogues; any advice?" She asked

"Which ones?" He replied.

Green Arrow's Location

Still hiding in the shadows, Oliver eventually found some materials around him that he could use to make arrows. The fact that they weren't his usual brand wasn't his biggest problem, these arrows were poorly made and heavy to pull back on his bow given the limited materials he found around him that he could use; also he could only make three and he at five targets, even for him this might require some luck. Oliver could still hear his victims still taunting him to come out so that they could kill him, on some level he felt ashamed for killing them as their statements about him were true on some level but he hated that they made themselves out to be seemingly innocent victims. He wasn't going to listen to them anymore.

"Get over yourselves!" Oliver yelled. "Gaynor you act like you did what did for your men, your right about your country doing you a great disservice but did the same thing when you kidnapped an innocent woman and used her as a hostage to get John Diggle, a man who was your friend and admired you, to rob others! Mueller your an arms dealer, you sold more weapons to crime families than anyone else in the city; how many people died all because you wanted to make a dollar!" Oliver said then fired two of his arrows into Gaynor and then Mueller's heads. The others rushed to where the arrows came from and open fire but Oliver was already gone by then.

"No wonder you three always hired others to shoot for you, your aim sucks!" Oliver yelled, and the others heard his voice in the distance and began to move that location; listening to Oliver continue to taunt them. "Faulk, do remember that kid you were about to kill? You were going to kill him because you thought he was scum, well I've got news for you. After I killed you to save him, he turned his life around. He became my partner. A hero! If you had killed him, all the people he helped including me wouldn't be here today! Claybourne, you manufactured a virus and created a cure for it; releasing it on innocent people all to make a profit! The only thing I regret about killing someone like you is what your psychotic son, put me and my family through hell because of it. All of you act like your innocent when deep down you know you all had it coming!" Oliver said as Claybourne, Faulk, and Vertigo moved closer to his position only to discover it was a speaker system that Oliver fashioned from a nearby car.

Suddenly both Claybourne and Faulk were taken down by arrows in the back of their heads, Oliver had lured them away to reuse the two arrows he had used on Gaynor and Mueller. He fired the third arrow he had left at the Count but he turned around at the last minute the arrow hitting his shoulder instead of his head. "Noticed you didn't say anything about me, Arrow." Count Vertigo said to Oliver.

"Didn't have to, you know you're insane." Oliver proclaimed. Vertigo pointed his submachine guns at Oliver and fired but they were empty. Oliver then charged the psychotic drug lord and delivered a push kick to his chest. Vertigo then launched an assault on him, to Oliver's surprise he was faster than he expected and made things worse for him was that Oliver himself was slower due to his damaged ribs. To make matters, Vertigo wasn't an overly experienced fighter but he was smart to know how to use his enhanced strength on Oliver's ribs. After several minutes, Oliver decided to end the fight by letting Vertigo hit him in the ribs. Enduring the pain, Oliver took advantage of this and held Vertigo's fist in his ribs, then managed to put him on the ground while holding him with choke lock.

"You know, you're probably right about how we had it coming. But you're kidding yourself if you don't think you don't have the same thing coming to you as well." Vertigo struggled to say as Oliver was chocking him before the latter finally snapped his neck.

"I know, I've got it coming too but it won't be today and it won't be you," Oliver said as he got up holding his ribs.

Spartan and Black Canary's Location

Andy Diggle and his men kick opened the door and immediately entered a search pattern formation, however, they didn't have too for long as his brother, John, was just standing there in front of them. He was barely able to stand and held his hands up, showing that he meant to surrender. Andy took notice of this and ordered his men to stand down, removing his helmet he approached his brother.

"Not like you to give up so easily John," Andy exclaimed. "Where's your pretty partner?"

"Told her to leave, I wanted this to be just between us," John answered.

"Well good, my thoughts exactly?" Andy said then hit John in the face with the handle of his handgun.

On his knees, still in pain from when Dinah had to burn him, John eventually spoke up. "Okay, I deserved that." He admitted.

"You mean for killing me, yeah you did. But, I gotta admit I was surprised, didn't think you had in." Andy said.

"You wanna know something, neither did I. But you ... you got Laurel killed ... a woman who's like a sister to me and you threaten Lyla and JJ and ... I ... I just reacted. You have no idea how much I punished myself for that, how many nights of sleep I lost over killing you. My baby brother." John explained.

"Is this supposed to make me feel sorry for you or make me say I forgive you?" Andy mockingly asked.

"No, I just wanna know one thing. I if hadn't killed you would you have gone after Lyla and JJ, even Carly and own your son?" John asked dreading the answer.

"Yeah, I would have," Andy answered.

"That's all I need to hear. Now Dinah!" John yelled.

Dinah hiding on the factory's ceiling scaffold, unleashed her Sonic Scream with all her might and affected Andy's soldiers in more ways than one. Preparing for their guests, John and she found materials to make some nail bombs in this abandoned factory that he learned to make in Afghanistan. These bombs were disguised as empty cans and jars, all they need to explode was a heat source and what most people don't know about sound is that it can generate certain levels of heat. The nail bombs were right in front of them and they didn't even notice, John even used himself as a distraction to make sure they wouldn't think twice about what was around them.

As the nail bombs exploded, the nails hit them and John used this opportunity to take Andy by surprise and disarm of his gun, knowing that his brother was now stronger than him; John capped him in both of his knees. Dinah then dropped on one of the soldiers and took him down immediately, before finishing the last two with her scream at almost point-blank range. Dinah then set her sights on John, holding his brother at gunpoint.

"Go on John, do it. They say the second time's easier." Andy said goading his brother who was obviously hesitating.

"I shouldn't of have killed you Andy, I might have done it for the right reasons but I did it in the wrong manner," John said then holstered his Andy's gun. "I'm not gonna give you the satisfaction of doing it a second time." Slowly Andy pulled a knife from his back and was about swing at John, but was shot in the back of the head by Dinah. John just simply stood over his dead brother and looked at his friend.

"He was gonna kill you, John. Besides, we would've had to put him down anyway and ... it shouldn't be on you to make that choice. No one should have to kill their own family regardless of who they are and what they've done." Dinah explained and as John silently understood.

Supergirl and Batwoman's Location

"So, what can you tell me about the one that can make multiple copies of himself?" Kate asked the Flash over comms while fighting the clones of Multiplex, dodging their attacks and stunning them her electric baton in tandem.

"Sounds like your fighting Danton Black aka Multiplex." Barry surmised.

"Do you nickname all the criminals you fight?" Kate wondered struggling to break free from the clones who were beginning to pile up on her using her grappling gun to get to the next floor.

"Pretty much yeah. Anyways, for me, the trick to taking down Black was finding the "main version" of him. The one that created all of the others, he'll look the most tired." Barry stated.

"It's kinda hard to do when they're all trying to kill you?" Kate yelled, as the clones came up the staircase going after her before kicking them away and then grappling to the other side of the building to a spot they could get to her. Searching for every clone for signs of fatigue, she was failing. "I'm not seeing anything." She said frantically.

"That's not possible he's gotta be there," Barry said worryingly.

"Maybe he's not getting tired as easily because he's dead! Kate yelled, then a thought occurred. "Hey, Flash is it possible for this guy's body temperature to be different because of his powers?" She asked.

"Yeah actually, Danton uses cellular division to create his duplicates, that much cellular activity is gonna show signs of higher than normal temperature like my body does when I'm running," Barry explained.

"All I need to know," Kate said as she then activated the lenses in her cowl to switch to infrared vision, looking through all the clones she eventually found the original Danton Black, the dude was red hot; she thought thinking she'd never say that about a man. Pulling out her gun for hopefully last time tonight, grappling as close she could to Black's location. She then shot one clone, then another, then flipping over another's shoulder double tapping him, push kicked one off the railing, and finally came face-to-face with original; shooting him at point-blank range. The Flash's info checked out, the other clones then dropped like flies and Kate holstered her sidearm.

Kara's fight with Atom Smasher wasn't going too well when she managed to land a solid punch on him with her incredible strength, he just stumbled back and returned the blow that sent her through a building. According to Barry, he beat him by overloading his body with atomic radiation which inadvertently killed him. However, because Atom Smasher was already dead he couldn't, in theory, be killed again in the same manner. Thinking about what Batwoman said about holding back and that they're already dead; Kara decided to stop holding back.

"Enough of this!" She said out loud.

Running across the streets of Gotham creating tremors as he stepped, Atom Smasher threw a punch at Kara but she blocked it. Letting go, Kara flew under his arm and using her heat vision she removed his right forearm. Though he couldn't feel pain, Atom Smasher used his other arms to put out the flames from the cauterized wound Supergirl gave him. Distracted, Kara flew and dislocated his knees causing him to fall. Using all her strength, Kara then lifted him up in the air and then flew him to Gotham's harbor and then threw him into the ocean. Because of his knees and severed forearm, Kara doubted that Smasher would be able to crawl away to the surface after being trapped under miles ocean. Although uncomfortable with the level of brutality she used to defeat someone who was for all intense and purposes dead, she felt a strange sense of satisfaction to not hold back against someone anymore.

"Gotta admit, it was nice to cut loose for once," Kara said to herself then flew back to Ace Chemicals.

The Lance Sisters' Location

Wielding Sara's bo-staff, Laurel fended off Hand's attacks but wasn't able to do much damage as she still needed more time for her powers to kick in. Looking at her sister's weapon, she would never be as good as Sara with the weapon but she was better with it now than when she first started; she took some pride in that. Whatever the hell Sara's plan was she better do it soon, as Laurel didn't know how much longer she was gonna last.

After checking the location signs on the stairs, Sara struggled to get up them. Eventually, she found what she was looking for: the monitor room. Going to the control panel, she accessed the speakers of the entire building. Pulling out her old sonic device, Sara went through its wiring like an old memory; it had been years since she used the weapon but never forgot how to use one that you truly favored. Sara's main concern was if her skills as an engineer would be to pull this off, she knew how to repair her device if necessary but pulling something like this off might not possible for her but she needed to try if they were to have a chance.

Using the bo-staff to deliver multiple strikes to Hand's knees with the bo-staff, Laurel then had to get out of the way of his knee strike but then hit with a kick so strong it broke the batons back into two and caused Laurel to hit the wall; causing it to crack some. Sore from the pain, Laurel felt Hand deliver one hard punch right into her chest; causing her to nearly pass out from the pain. Grabbing her, Hand's hands were completely enveloped over Laurel's body and began squeezing intending to crush her to death.

"I gave you a second chance, Laurel! I gave a new life after you were robbed of your first one and how have you repaid me? By burning down my organization, my resources, my men, everything I was building, all the people I saved! And, for what, for your mother? I could have just easily brought her back to you, just as I did you for her! I could even bring your father back for you and sister if I wanted too but you won't have it will? Because you think your the only one who gets to decide who comes back to life, don't you? Don't you?" Hand angrily asked and yelled at Laurel as he continued to crush her with his bare hands.

"Urghhhhhhhhhhh!" Laurel screamed in agony.

Connecting the speaker wires to the sonic device, Sara made a few minor adjustments before making her hail mary. "Okay Laurel, here's the sound, now bring the fury!" She said.

Sara, Caitlin, and Ava all covered their ears in pain as Sara's plan took motion. The sonic device she got from Laurel was connected to the speaker system, which projected the device's intense sound through every speak on every floor on the building; all that sound would then be absorbed by Laurel returning her enhanced abilities, tenfold.

Hand felt like he was hearing the entire building scream, the pain in his ears was excruciating and he thought he couldn't feel pain. Either his grip loosen or Laurel's strength was now greater than before and managed break from his hold. He then threw a punch at Laurel but she just blocked it with her own hand like it was nothing, then delivered a sidekick at his chest that pushed him back several feet.

"If you can still hear me over all this noise, I want you to know something. I was wrong, I was wrong and selfish when choose to bring my sister back to life. But as wrong as it was to do it when it comes down to it: I did it out of love, love, and grief for my sister. That's why I brought Sara back. But you, you don't bring people back out of love. You bring people back so that you can use them, own them, control them. I was in the wrong, but I never tried to play God with peoples' lives. So don't you dare compare me to YOUUUUUUUUU!" Laurel said, then yelled unleashing all the sound she absorbed from the building into a sonic scream even more potent and powerful than Captain Drake's, it was like a hurricane came from her mouth. The Scream pushed Hand far back into the wall, then to the next room and finally out of the building itself; where he fell to his death from at least 150-foot drop onto the hard pavement.

The speakers eventually stopped, leaving the whole building a deafening silence. Running over to the hole she made in the building, Laurel looked down and saw Hand's corpse. After two years of trying to bring his organization, she finished it with his death it would crumble. It was over, it was finally over.

"Now that's a Canary Cry." She told herself surprised at what she had just done.

Barry had reached the dispersal device location and finally disabled it. "I've got the device disabled." He said over comms.

"Copy that, our device is disabled as well," John said with Dinah standing next to him.

"I just finished mine," Oliver said.

"And with this, our bomb squad detail is over," Kate said cutting her last wire just as Supergirl flew up behind her.

"We should get to the other's make sure the other devices are done," Kara stated.

"Everyone's already taken care of it," Kate explained.

"Really, that's good," Kara exclaimed.

"Yeah, it is good. Good, that you'll be leaving Gotham. You guys have caused more than enough trouble." Kate said seriously and with bitterness.

"Right, sorry. You know your cousin and my cousin are friends, well frenemies really." Kate was a little startled by Kara's choice of words. "X-Ray vision, sorry. You really do have a lot of tattoos."

"Somehow, I feel like Kara Danvers doesn't have a single one." Kate guessed with a coy smile.

"You know, it's a shame I have to go because you and I seem to make a pretty good team," Kara said enthusiastically.

"World's finest," Kate respond as the two women shook hands and then left.

* * *

**Author's Notes: Again sorry for the story length, there were just a lot of details I wanted to fit into this action-packed chapter. I'm also sorry for the delay as I've been struggling to finish this story and I also decided to release the last two chapters of Blackest Night together. **

**Originally, I wasn't going to give Laurel a Canary Cry but I thought it would be cool for her ending the big bad with it. Also, Laurel's Cry is different from Drake's and her doppelganger's. Its power is determined by how much sound she has absorbed and once she unleashes it, all the energy she absorbs dissipates.**

**I think another reason I brought Laurel back in this story was to have her, Sara, and even Oliver, struggle with the ethics and morality of bringing someone back to life. In 4x05 of Arrow, I've read people bitch about both Oliver and Laurel on their hypocrisy for saving their sisters with the Lazarus Pit when to me they were both right and wrong when it comes to that issue. However, to someone like Derek Hand who is literally bringing people back to life because of a God Complex, it makes people like Laurel and Oliver who did what they did out of desperation, grief, and love to remind the others that they were ultimately human. **


	18. Chapter 18 - Traditions

Central City, S.T.A.R. Labs, One week later

"This is Linda Park, from channel 52 news. Reports from all over the world are coming in about various people mysterious dropping dead due to unknown circumstances. Furthermore this reporter has sources that suggest that some of the victims from this apparent epidemic have been reported dead before. Various officials from ARGUS, have officially taken over the investigation, taking the bodies for further testing and analysis. We of channel 52 news will continue to update you on this news." She stated as Oliver turned off the tv.

"So that was Lyla, all data we got from the Black Hand's sites are being taken down by ARGUS. They're tracking down all the members and are building up a cover story to explain why people are just dropping dead." John stated to everyone.

"Now that Hand's dead what will happen to his organization?" Barry asked.

"Hand wasn't just Manus in Nigrum's leader, he was the key component in their operation. Now that he's gone any remains of his powers are gonna be in limited supply now, but eventually, they're gonna run out of it and the Black Hand will fully collapse in on itself." Oliver explained.

"So all we have to do now is wait and the problem will take care of itself?" Caitlin asked.

"Pretty much," Oliver answered.

"And in the meanwhile, people just start dying again great," Ralph said.

"Ralph, you ok?" Barry asked.

"You know, I looked at some of the histories of the Black Hand's client list. A lot of them were pretty decent people. People who just wanted their loved ones back. Cause of us, their gonna lose them again if they haven't already." Ralph said somberly as everyone in the room just looked at him.

"Ralph, you have to remember that most of these people were brought back just so they could be used by Hand," Kara said.

"Maybe so Kara but not all of them were," Ralph replied.

"But enough of them were causing a lot of trouble in the world. Look, Ralph, buddy I get it I do. But take it from somebody who once tried to play God and ended up doing a lot of damage to people's lives. When somebody tries to play God, it usually always ends badly." Barry said, reminded of his own experiences from Flashpoint but he understood Ralph's point of view.

"Well, sorry Rookie, I'm just having a very hard time feeling very heroic about this." The private detective said before walking away and the group looked somber at his statement wondering if he was right.

"He'll come around Barry," Caitlin reassured him.

"Yeah, I know." Barry she quietly.

"Well, hopefully, he'll do it soon once the guest of honor gets here," Oliver said.

"Yeah, where is Laurel by the way?" Kara asked.

"She and Sara had to do something alone." He answered.

Central City Docks, Nighttime

The Lances stood next to each other on the Central City harbor, it was the best place they could do for this occasion. Laurel was holding an urn filled with ashes, her mother's ashes.

"So you held onto her, all this time," Sara asked.

"Couldn't risk burying her, but I also couldn't spread her ashes by myself. I knew that was something you, me, and dad should do together." Laurel explained as she then gave the urn to her sister.

"Mom, I ... I ... I wish I knew exactly what to say to you right but I don't. Cause we both know I've never been good at goodbyes." Sara said looking at the urn and trying hard not to cry. "Anything you want to add?" She asked Laurel.

"Said everything I needed too over the last two years," Laurel answered as Sara then slowly poured the ashes into the water. The two women just stood in silence for several moments before speaking again. "So it's just you me now," The elder sister said.

"Yeah, probably for the best. I think mom and especially dad, would which prefer us standing over their graves then them standing over ours." Sara answered though she hated saying that a little.

"Doesn't make it any easier. Speaking of graves, Sara I ... can I ask you, something?" Laurel said.

"What is it," Sara asked.

"Is this all my fault? Laurel asked.

"What do you mean of course not, why would you think that," Sara defended her.

"When I was drugged with fear toxin, I saw Darhk. He accused me of bringing all this about because I brought you back and Hand basically said only I seem to get to decide who gets to come back to life. I don't believe it but I can't help but wonder." Laurel stated.

"Look, Laurel, even when I thought I made peace with your death I never ... I never stopped thinking about saving you. Almost every day I thought, am I gonna find something that can bring you back without any consequences. Then when I lost Dad, I felt the same way about him. I think that living in a world where you know that death can be undone is gonna tempt you; how can it not. What I'm trying to say don't listen let those psychos get into your head for doing something completely human and more importantly don't be too hard on yourself for doing it either." Sara explained.

"When did you become so wise?" Laurel smiled at her with curiosity and gratitude.

"I've been through a lot since you brought me back and even more after you died. Speaking of which I want to thank for that by the way." Sara said as she recalled.

"Sara, you don't have too." Laurel insisted trying to stop her.

"No, I do. When you brought me back sure it was selfish but it gave me so much more than I thought possible. I have a great life now partially because of you, better than I thought possible and certainly better than I deserve. I have a team that's like a second family to me, I have a purpose now, I have a woman that I love who loves me, someone I might actually I have a future with. I have that because of what you did." Sara confessed.

"Well, your welcome," Laurel said a little reluctantly. "Hey, are you hungry? I could really use something to eat."

"Yeah, and I know just the place," Sara said and took out her phone to make a call. "Hi, Barry, it's ready? Okay now!"

"Sara, what are you," Laurel said before being interrupted by Barry who immediately took the sisters to S.T.A.R. Labs. "Doing?"

"SURPRISE!" Everyone said out loud to Laurel as the whole room was decorated for a party, with a huge "Welcome Back Laurel" banner hung in the air. Laurel found her chuckling a little as she looked at everyone smiling and clapping to welcome her back; there was Ollie, John, Felicity, Iris, Cisco, Caitlin, Ralph, Dinah Drake, Sherloque Wells, Lyla, Curtis, Ava, and Kara. She then found herself looking at Barry and then Sara in surprise.

"You know you really didn't have to do this," Laurel said to Sara.

"Of course, we did," Sara replied.

"You come back from the dead, you get a party, Laurel. It's a Queen family tradition. Plus, it's becoming a superhero tradition too." Oliver said as he approached her.

"I think I speak for everyone in this room when I say we've missed you, Laurel. And, now that we're done saving the world again we can show just how much missed you." Barry said.

Starting to tear up a little, Laurel quickly rubbed it away from her eyes before speaking. "Well if this is a welcome home party, then let's turn up the music people!" She yelled, most of the people joined her and Cisco cracked up the volume just as the guest of honor ordered.

"Bring it in girl," Felicity said hugging Laurel.

"Missed you too Felicity," Laurel said then saw Iris.

"Iris heard about you and Barry congrats." She said hugging her too.

"We would have loved to have you at the wedding, also you gotta tell me what you got done to your hair; it's sick!" Iris exclaimed as Laurel smiled.

Several minutes passed as everyone hung around each other, laughing catching up with one another. Not having a mystery to solve or a world to save just extraordinary people being ordinary for a single night.

"Okay Babe, you got to admit that the scariest types of zombies are the ones we just fought," Ava argued to Sara, continuing their conversation from they're date night before they got called into this mess.

"You mean the ones that look like ordinary people but stronger and can really mess with your head if you knew them. Yeah, totally agree with you on that one." Sara answered and agreed.

"Well, all I can say for sure is that our little run-ins with the undead, top pretty much every zombie flick I think of?" Cisco said taking a huge sip of champagne.

"Hey listen, the next time we get some free time how about you, me, and Laurel grab something to eat," Ava suggested.

"You wanna do lunch with me and my sister?" Sara asked.

"She's now literally the only family you have so yeah. Plus, how else will I get some more embarrassing stories on you." Ava answered with a mischevious smirk.

"Trying to get dirt on me, Director Sharpe?" Sara asked coyly.

"Always, Captain Lance," Ava replied.

"Oh god that's so hot, please continue don't pretend that I'm here," Cisco said as two lovers just looked at him in a way that made quickly walk away.

"So first aliens, then Nazis, now zombies. Wonder what we'll go up against next year." Oliver said sarcastically.

"Was that a joke? Did he just make a joke?" Barry jokingly asked Kara next to him.

"I think he did." Kara laughed.

"What I make jokes, sometimes," Oliver replied.

"Not often, he is right though this is getting to be an annual thing," Kara answered.

"Well let's hope they end like this. Cheers." Barry said holding up a beer bottle.

"Cheers," Oliver and Kara said clanking their beers together.

"Oh my god, he's gotten so big," Laurel said gushing at the photos on Lyla's phone of JJ.

"I know, it's hard to be how quickly time passes," Lyla said with John next to her, then her phone began ringing.

"Uh-oh, this looks important," Laurel said giving Lyla her phone back.

"Very, I gotta take this. Great talking too you again, Laurel." Lyla said giving her hug and gave her husband a small kiss on the cheek. "Keep her company, Johnny. Director Michaels." She said as she finally answered her phone.

"Glad to see you too are still going strong," Laurel said.

"Yeah me too. Listen, Laurel, I've been meaning to talk to about this. About what happened to you, that was on me; Andy." John said trying to apologize.

"John, don't it's okay." Laurel tried to stop him.

"No, it's not. Oliver warned me about Andy and I didn't listen and because I trusted my brother, you died." John said.

"John, do you remember when Sara came back into my life after everything she did to me and our parents. Once I got over being angry at her, I gave a second chance because, in the end, she was my sister. For the most part, I don't regret giving her that chance. But it could have gone another way she could have let me down like Andy did to you. John, you shouldn't blame yourself for giving Andy the same opportunity and you shouldn't blame yourself for him letting you down. I'm just sorry that you didn't get what Sara and I have right now." Laurel explained.

"Still, Laurel." John started to say before being interrupted by Laurel hugging him.

"We all have blind spots when it comes to our families, your words John. Whatever mistake you've made involving your family, we all have, even me. So, try to forgive yourself okay." Laurel told him in earshot.

"Well, for what it's worth. Despite seeing my dead brother again, I'm glad I get to see my sister again." He said lovingly.

After a couple of minutes of talking to Barry and Kara, Oliver caught Laurel outside on the balcony and went to check on her. It was cold tonight and lightly snowing. "Need a moment to yourself." He asked joining her at the railing.

"Yeah, just for a moment. Thinking about a lot of things right now." Laurel said.

"Like what?" He asked.

"About how much I've wanted this. When I thought if the day ever came when I was finally finished with the Black Hand and if I ever worked up the nerve to see everyone again, I could have something like this. But know that I do I still have a bunch of other problems I need to deal with now; my evil doppelganger, my career as a lawyer, and the fact that the public knows I'm the Black Canary cause of you." She ranted. "For the first time in a long time, I don't know what I'm going to do with my life."

"Well, I'm sure we'll figure something out for you. As for telling the public that you're the Black Canary, I'm sorry." He said.

"Ollie, don't." She replied trying to stop.

"No, I mean I ... I should have considered the possibility that you, that maybe Sara or someone else would bring back to life." Oliver said.

"Oliver, you can't plan for things like that. Besides, you shouldn't blame yourself for telling people I'm the Black Canary. You've ... you've done a lot of selfish and hurtful things to me, Ollie. But that was never one of them. You telling people who I was under that mask, you fighting like hell to keep all the good I ever did with my life alive and intact was without question one of the most loving things you've ever done for me." She said passionately before hugging him in the same manner.

Oliver tightly returned it and eventually, they broke off of it enough that they found themselves looking at one another; staring into each other's eyes and feeling that spark of attraction that would always seem to be between them. "You know I've ... I've been meaning to ask you if you still remember what told me on your deathbed." He asked.

"You mean when I told that you're the love of my life, that thing?" She answered.

"Yeah, what a ... what should we do about that." He replied.

"There's nothing we can do you're married, to a good woman. It'll be a little weird at first but I hopefully will figure it out, besides no offense to my sister but I'm not her. I don't sleep with people that are already taken, especially if they're married." She stated in an honest yet awkward manner.

"Laurel, I." Oliver started to say but Laurel's phone then rang, seeing that it was Kate she had to answer.

"Sorry, I got to take this," She said.

"Oliver," Felicity said from the balcony's door.

"Felicity hey," Oliver said as he walked over to his wife.

"Was I interrupting something," Felicity said sounding a little jealous and judgemental.

"No, nothing you need to concern yourself about," Oliver said although he was wondering if he was lying to himself a little.

"I hope not." She said.

Laurel finally answered her phone. "You know you're missing a pretty nice party here, you should have come." She told her partner over the phone.

"Seems more of a family and friends type of thing," Kate answered from Gotham on a tall building.

"Oh what all these months of working together and were not friends?" Laurel jokingly asked.

"I'd say were work friends, besides you know I don't do tearful goodbyes." Kate reminded her.

"No you do not," Laurel said with a small chuckle. "That being said in all, thank you for your help, truly."

"Same, and you know that if you ever need me around," Kate said before being interrupted by Laurel.

"Yeah, same goes for me. And, listen, Kate, wherever Bruce is I'm sure he's really proud of you and I hope you find him." Laurel said.

"Me too, see you around partner." Kate said.

"Bye, partner," Laurel replied just as Kate hung up, then hearing police sirens dove off the building and glided among the air currents with her cape to reach that location.

Gotham City, Arkham Asylum

Roger Hayden was just sitting on the floor of his room, laughing to himself. "Hahaha, it doesn't matter. Nothing we do will matter, because soon very soon, worlds will live, worlds will die, and the universe will never be the same." The psychopath said ominously to himself.

* * *

**Author's Notes: A comment once messaged me if I was planning to get Oliver and Laurel back together, but that was never my intention but I ended this story on a note that they might as there is still something between them. The point of this story was to bring Laurel back to life and give her a compelling story arc. Because when I really think about her character, I'm more upset that she was just killed off before she could reach her full potential as a character and a hero than if she would end up with Oliver; as Black Canary is known for more than just her relationship with the Green Arrow.**

**Laurel Lance's treatment and death on Arrow, is one of the things I've never been able to forgive Arrow for. Additionally, Katie Cassidy's portrayal as Black Siren proved that there was so much more to her story and the fact that they just brought Laurel's doppelganger in to replace is like Arrow's showrunners admitting that they made a mistake killing her off without actually owning up to it and undoing her death as they should have.**

** I hope you enjoyed this story, please leave reviews and be sure to read to my other works.**


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